Why it works: Brandy and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
A Marrow Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
In a stew pan, combine cream and milk with Naples biscuits and bring to a boil.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and whites until fine.
Add soft sugar, chopped marrow, brandy, sack, and orange flower water to the eggs and mix well.
Pour the mixture into the pan and stir continuously until thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Line a dish with puff pastry, pour in the mixture, and sprinkle with currants.
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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Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Wine + orangetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,046 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Biscuit + orangetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together371 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,706 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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 (cream, milk, biscuit, egg, sugar, brandy, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, biscuit, egg, sugar, brandy, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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