Why it works: Butter and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Sponge Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Assemble
Grease a mould generously with butter.
Fill the mould three-quarters full with small sponge cakes soaked in wine.
Pour rich cold custard into the mould until full.
Cover and cook
Butter a piece of paper and place it on top of the mould.
Tie a floured cloth tightly over the mould.
Boil the mould for one hour.
Serve
Carefully turn out the pudding and pour cold custard over it before serving.
Alternatively, bake the pudding and serve with wine sauce instead of custard.
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.
-
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Small sponge cakes
- Form the soft structure of the pudding and absorb the wine, becoming tender as they soak.
- Wine
- Soaks into the sponge cakes, adding moisture and a sharp, aromatic flavour.
- Rich cold custard
- Supplies moisture and richness, filling the gaps between the sponge cakes.
The step that matters
Carefully turn out the pudding. The sponge and custard are soft and can break apart when the pudding is inverted. Gentle, steady handling keeps the pudding in one piece for serving.
“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 sponge pudding recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 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.