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Dessert

Orange Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with orange pulp, biscuits, butter, milk, cinnamon, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Orange 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 oranges

  1. Peel the oranges as finely as possible and boil them until tender.

  2. Rub the boiled oranges through a fine sieve to preserve the pulp.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the Naples biscuits, nutmeg, and butter.

  2. Pour the boiling milk or cream, infused with the cinnamon stick, over the biscuit mixture.

  3. Mix in the orange pulp and beaten eggs.

  4. Sweeten to taste.

  5. Add the brandy. Mix well.

Bake

  1. Edge a baking dish with puff pastry.

  2. Pour in the mixture.

  3. Garnish the top with strips of pastry.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Biscuit + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Biscuit + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard into a sliceable structure as they cook.
Naples biscuits
Soak up the hot milk and form the body of the pudding.
Orange pulp
Adds bright citrus flavor and moisture to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Milk or cream
Provides liquid that softens the biscuits and forms the custard.

The step that matters

Rub the boiled oranges through a fine sieve. Removing fibrous pieces and seeds keeps the filling smooth. Pulp that is too coarse can leave a stringy, uneven texture after baking.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, nutmeg, butter, milk, cinnamon, egg, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, nutmeg, butter, milk, cinnamon, egg, brandy. 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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