Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fruit Pudding
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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the flour, egg yolks, sour cream, and baking soda; mix well.
Fold in the jam or cherries, or the raisins and currants.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for 1 hour.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread over the top of the pudding.
Return to the oven and brown slightly.
Serve with 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.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to give the pudding a tender, rich crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter into a set, tender crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to lift the batter as it bakes.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light topping that browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Under-whipped whites will deflate and weep rather than hold a light topping. Fully stiff whites trap air that expands in the oven and sets into a meringue-like layer.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, cream):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, cream. 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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