Why it works: Orange and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Custard Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the milk with the flour gradually.
Add the egg yolks, orange flower water, and cinnamon.
Butter a basin that will hold the mixture and pour the batter in.
Tie a flour cloth over the basin.
Cook and serve
Place in boiling water and turn it occasionally for a few minutes.
Boil for half an hour.
Serve with currant jelly and sweet sauce.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,437 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard and give it a rich, set texture.
- Flour
- Starch thickens the milk mixture so the pudding holds its shape.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that sets into a soft custard.
The step that matters
Boiling the pudding in the floured cloth. The cloth must be tied snugly over the basin so the pudding does not swell and leak, and the water must keep boiling gently, not rapidly, so the custard sets evenly without becoming rough or full of holes.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg, orange, cinnamon, butter, sauce):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg, orange, cinnamon, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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