Name: Sponge Cake Pudding
Ingredients: 5 eggs; 2 cups sugar; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour; 2 cups sugar (for sauce); 1 cup butter; grated rind of 1 lemon; juice of 1 lemon; boiling water (as needed)

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Beaten whites trap air that lifts the batter, and yolks add richness and structure.
All-purpose flour: Provides the starch and gluten that give the cake its body and structure.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while softening its texture.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar and milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Cream of tartar: Acts as an acid that reacts with baking soda to help the batter rise.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the lemon sauce.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring too hard deflates the whites, which are the main source of lift. Fold gently so the air stays trapped and the cake rises evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, cream, flour, sauce, butter):

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Coconutfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, cream, flour, sauce, butter. 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.

Sponge Cake Pudding