Name: Golden Pudding
Ingredients: ½ lb. bread crumbs; ½ lb. suet, finely minced; 1 large egg; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; 1 lb. flour; ½ lb. brown sugar; 5 oz. marmalade; 2 teaspoons water

Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Golden 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, minced suet, and brown sugar.
Add the flour, baking soda, and marmalade, mixing well.
Beat the egg and add it to the mixture along with the water. Stir until all ingredients are well combined.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown.

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.

Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + flourtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,383 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Egg: Binds the mixture and helps it set firm as the pudding bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity in the marmalade to produce gas that lightens the texture.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it bakes.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and molasses flavor while helping the top brown.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and add body, giving the pudding its soft, bread-based texture.

“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.