Why it works: Carrot and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Carrot Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the carrots and crumbs
Wash and scrape the carrots clean with a knife.
Grate the carrots into a basin.
Stand a wire sieve over a plate.
Rub the bread through the sieve to obtain about 3 oz of bread crumbs.
Add the bread crumbs and 1 oz of castor sugar to the basin with the grated carrots.
Make the custard
Melt 2 oz of butter in a saucepan over low heat.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool slightly.
Stir in ⅓ cup of sherry, ½ cup of cream, and 1 tablespoon of orange flower water into the melted butter.
Add the yolks of 2 eggs to the mixture.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.
Pour the mixture into the basin with the carrots and bread crumbs, and mix well.
Bake
Line a 1‑pint pie dish with puff paste.
Pour the pudding mixture into the lined pie dish and bake.
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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Carrot + orangetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sherry + orangetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together823 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carrots
- Grated carrots form the bulk of the pudding and give it body and sweetness.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and help bind the grated carrots into a soft, set pudding.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whipped whites lighten the texture and help it rise.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a tender, moist crumb.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the pudding.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps brown its surface during baking.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites lose their air if overmixed or deflated, so fold gently and briefly to keep the pudding light rather than dense.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, cream, egg, sherry, sugar, orange):
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, cream, egg, sherry, sugar, orange. 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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