Name: Marie Puddings
Ingredients: 1 lb flour; 1 oz butter; 3 oz sugar; 1 egg; 1 lemon (zest only); 1 teaspoon baking powder; milk; glacé cherries; sauce (as described)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Marie Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, half of the lemon zest, and baking powder.
Melt the butter and pour it into the dry ingredients.
Add the egg and enough milk to form a batter.
Fold in the glacé cherries.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Serve with the sauce as described.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Egg: Binds the batter and helps it set as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly as it bakes.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk, sauce):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk, 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.