Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓
Baked Gooseberry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Place gooseberries in a jar and set over a pan of water on the fire until they pulp.
Press the pulp through a coarse sieve to obtain 1 pint of juice.
Make the mixture
Stir in the butter, beaten and strained eggs, bread crumbs or crushed biscuits, and sugar.
Bake
Line a dish with pastry, pour in the mixture, and bake 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.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 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
- Gooseberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and tartness, and their pulp gives the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Set the mixture when baked, giving it a custard-like firmness.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and thicken the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs thicken as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny while overbaking can make it weep and turn rubbery. Watch for a set centre that still wobbles slightly.
“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.
More gooseberry pudding recipes
You might also like
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
Brown Bread Pudding47 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.