Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Another Way to Make Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the orange paste
Soak the oranges in cold water for 2 days, changing the water twice daily.
Boil the oranges in cold water until a straw can pierce them, then remove and weigh them.
Remove seeds from the oranges, then pound the oranges with the sugar in a mortar until smooth.
Remove any white and stringy parts, then pack the mixture into jars and seal with paper.
Make and bake the pudding
To make the pudding, mix 2 tablespoons of the orange paste with 5 beaten egg yolks, 2.5 ounces of sugar, 2.5 ounces of melted butter, 3 tablespoons of white wine, and 2 tablespoons of rose water.
Beat the mixture for about 30 minutes.
Bake in a dish lined with puff pastry.
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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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Orange + rosetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together876 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together730 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
White wine + rosetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together162 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Seville oranges
- Provide the bitter aromatic flavour and pulp that forms the body of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Set the pudding and give it a rich, smooth, custard-like structure when baked.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, silky texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps preserve the orange paste.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture for about 30 minutes. Long beating incorporates air and blends the egg yolks, butter and orange paste evenly, so the pudding bakes with a smooth, light texture instead of separating or turning dense.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, white wine, rose):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, white wine, rose. 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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