Name: Royal Coburg Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint new milk; 6 oz flour; 6 oz sugar; 6 oz butter; 6 oz currants; 6 eggs; a little brandy; nutmeg to taste

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Royal Coburg Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Mix the flour with the milk to form a smooth batter.
Gradually add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into four basins or molds, filling them half full.
Bake for 1 hour.
Turn the puddings out onto a dish and serve with wine sauce.

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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Eggs: Set during baking to bind the batter and give the pudding its body.
Butter: Adds richness and a tender texture to the crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly in the oven.
Milk: Provides the liquid that turns the flour into a batter and keeps the pudding moist.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

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