Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 2½ ounces fine bread crumbs; 4 eggs; 1 pound green gooseberries; 5 ounces sugar; 1 pint water; crushed Naples biscuits (optional); double quantity of butter (optional)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

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).
In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs and whisked eggs.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake gently for 30 to 45 minutes.

Make the fruit

In a saucepan, cook the gooseberries with sugar and water for 10 to 12 minutes.
For a finer pudding, work the fruit through a sieve and mix with crushed Naples biscuits and double the butter.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + biscuittop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together319 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Biscuit + buttertop 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).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the bread crumbs together and help the pudding set as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Provide the body that the eggs set around, giving the pudding its structure.
Gooseberries: Supply the tart fruit flavour and moisture that make up the pudding.
Sugar: Sweetens the tart gooseberries and balances their acidity.