Why it works: Brandy and currant 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 ↓
Sweet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Mix the egg yolks with the warmed butter and sugar.
Add the orange-flower water, brandy, nutmeg, and cream. Beat well.
If using currants, fold them in. Otherwise, add orange or lemon candy.
Bake and serve
Butter teacups.
Pour the mixture into the teacups.
Bake until set.
Serve with pudding 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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Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Set the custard by coagulating when heated, giving it a rich, firm body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender, smooth texture to the custard.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and adds flavor.
- Currants
- Add chewy bursts of fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Egg yolks set at a moderate heat; overbaking pushes them past the point of tenderness, causing curdling, weeping, and a grainy texture. Pull the pudding once it just holds together.
Swap the orange
The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, cream, currant):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, cream, currant. 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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