Why it works: Orange and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 385 recipes. Both carry pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fruit
Peel and slice the oranges, removing all seeds, and place them in a bowl.
Sprinkle the sugar over the oranges and let them sit.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil over simmering water.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and mix in the cornstarch with a little cold milk until smooth.
Stir the yolk mixture into the boiling milk, cooking until thickened, then pour over the fruit.
Top and bake
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then add the sugar and spread over the pudding.
Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few minutes to harden the frosting.
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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Orange + peachtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together385 recipes
Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
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Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oranges
- Provide the main fruit flavour and juice that sweetens and moistens the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens with the yolks and cornstarch.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard by swelling in heat, keeping it smooth and stable.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and custard and helps the egg whites hold their stiff peaks.
The step that matters
Cooking the yolk mixture into the boiling milk. Egg yolks can scramble if heated too fast or left too long. Stirring constantly while the cornstarch thickens keeps the custard smooth and lump-free.
Swap the peach
The recipe marks peach as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, sugar, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against orange, sugar, milk, egg. 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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