Name: Sussex Puddings a LA Forest Farm
Ingredients: French rolls (sliced into ¼ inch thick slices); 1 quart of mixed fresh fruit (black currants, raspberries, red currants, peaches, cranberries, blackberries, or mulberries); 1 pint of syrup (see recipe No. 400); 1 pint of good thick cream

Why it works: Syrup and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sussex Puddings a LA Forest Farm

Ingredients

French rolls (sliced into ¼ inch thick slices)
1 quart of mixed fresh fruit (black currants, raspberries, red currants, peaches, cranberries, blackberries, or mulberries)
1 pint of syrup (see recipe No. 400)
1 pint of good thick cream

Directions

Prepare

Line a mold with the sliced French rolls, ensuring they are close together to prevent leaks.
Stew the mixed fresh fruit in the syrup until soft, then let it cool.
Fill the mold with the cooled fruit mixture.
Cover the fruit with another layer of sliced French rolls, the same thickness as the lining.

Rest and serve

Let the pudding stand for 12 hours.
Turn the pudding over and let it stand for another 12 hours.
Remove the mold about 1 hour before serving.
Cover the pudding with thick cream, basting it with cream every 15 minutes.

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.

Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Black currant + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together67 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Black currant + syruptop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together20 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

French rolls: Soak up the fruit juices and set into a soft, cake-like structure as the pudding stands.
Mixed fresh fruit: Provides the main flavour and juice that moistens and colours the bread.
Syrup: Sweetens the fruit and helps it stew until soft.
Cream: Adds richness and fat as a topping that softens and flavours the pudding's surface.

The step that matters

Letting the pudding stand. The bread needs long, unhurried soaking so it absorbs the fruit juice evenly and firms into a sliceable pudding. Rushing this leaves dry patches or a loose, soggy centre.

Swap the black currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, cream):

Vanillafits better
Strawberryfits better
Raspberryfits better
Black currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, cream. 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.

Red Currant Jelly65 recipes

Currant Ice Cream32 recipes

Currant Sherbet9 recipes

Oranges in Syrup9 recipes

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Sussex Puddings a LA Forest Farm