Name: Orange Pudding
Ingredients: 2 ounces candied or preserved orange; ½ cup butter; 1 cup sugar; 8 egg yolks; 2 ounces sponge biscuits

Why it works: Orange and biscuit work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 371 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Orange 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

Mix the sugar and candied orange with the melted butter.
Add the sponge biscuits and egg yolks to the mixture.
Pour into a dish lined with puff pastry.

Bake

Bake for 30 minutes.

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.

Orange + biscuittop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together371 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,009 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,874 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Bind the filling and set during baking to give a rich, custard-like texture.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, helping the filling stay tender.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps tenderize it as it bakes.
Sponge biscuits: Soak up the liquid and add body to the filling.
Candied orange: Provides citrus flavour and aroma, with a touch of sweetness.