Name: A Good Sponge Cake Pudding
Ingredients: 3 sponge biscuits; 2 ounces candied orange or lemon rind; 6 eggs; butter for greasing

Why it works: Biscuit and orange work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 371 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

A Good Sponge Cake Pudding

Ingredients

3 sponge biscuits
2 ounces candied orange or lemon rind
6 eggs
butter for greasing

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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a tart dish with butter.
Place 3 sponge biscuits in the dish.
Cut 2 ounces of candied orange or lemon rind into strips and place on the biscuits.
Whisk 6 eggs thoroughly and pour over the biscuits and rind.

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.

Biscuit + orangetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together371 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,009 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Orange + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Biscuit + eggtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,643 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).