Name: Semolina Pudding, a LA Baden
Ingredients: 12 ounces semolina; 6 ounces powdered sugar; 8 ounces butter; 8 eggs; 1 pint cream; 1 tablespoon orange-flower water; 2 ounces ratafias; a little salt

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Semolina Pudding, a LA Baden

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, mix semolina, sugar, orange-flower water, half the butter, 2 eggs, cream, and salt.
Stir over medium heat until it boils, then work until smooth and it no longer sticks to the sides.
Remove from heat and gradually mix in the remaining eggs and butter, along with the crushed ratafias.
Butter a plain mold and fill it with the semolina mixture.
Place the mold in a deep saucepan half-filled with hot water.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Semolina + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together351 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (semolina, sugar, butter, egg, cream):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Lemonfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against semolina, sugar, butter, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.