Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Baked Gooseberry 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 the fruit
Stew gooseberries over low heat until tender.
Pulp the gooseberries through a fine sieve.
Make the filling
Beat the eggs and strain them into the cooled gooseberry pulp.
Mix in bread crumbs, sugar, orange and lemon peels, nutmeg, and rose or orange-flower water.
Bake
Line a pie dish with crust, pour in the mixture, and cover with a rim of crust.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Orange + rosetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together876 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Lemon + rosetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,174 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the pulp and help the filling set firm when baked.
- Gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and tartness, and the body of the filling.
- Bread crumbs or naples biscuits
- Absorb liquid and give the filling a softer, more cohesive texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the gooseberries.
The step that matters
Straining the eggs into the cooled pulp. If the pulp is still hot, the eggs can scramble or cook unevenly before baking. Cooling the pulp first keeps the egg mixture smooth so it sets evenly in the oven.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, rose):
- Orangethe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, rose. 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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