Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
A Souffle Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Butter a quart mould and add raisins as for Ratafia Pudding.
Cut the sponge cakes into pieces and place them in the mould.
Make and cook the pudding
Whisk the eggs to break the yolks, then pour in the boiling milk and add sugar to taste.
Strain the mixture through a sieve into the mould.
Cover the mould and boil it.
Serve
Serve hot with wine 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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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard and give the pudding its light, rich structure.
- Sponge cakes
- Soak up the milk and egg mixture to form the body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that carries the eggs and sugar and sets with them.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Strain the mixture through a sieve into the mould. Straining removes stringy egg white and bits of unbroken yolk, so the custard sets smooth rather than lumpy or grainy.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Lemonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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