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Onion Pudding. Ponding D LA Soubise.

A savory onion pudding made with onions, double cream, white sauce, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Onion Pudding. Ponding D LA Soubise.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the onion base

  1. Boil the onions until tender, then drain and pass them through a wire sieve.

  2. Put the onion puree into a saucepan and cook over low heat to evaporate excess water.

  3. Add the double cream and continue to reduce until it nearly detaches from the sides of the pan.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the white sauce.

  2. Add the yolks of eggs and mix well before serving.

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.

  1. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Onions
Provide the main body and sweet flavour of the pudding once cooked down into a puree.
Double cream
Adds fat and richness, and its reduction thickens the onion mixture.
White sauce
Adds body and a smooth, binding texture to the onion puree.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture.

The step that matters

Reducing the onion puree. Onions hold a lot of water, and cooking them over low heat drives it off. If excess moisture stays in, the pudding will be loose and watery. Reducing the cream until it nearly leaves the pan sides concentrates the mixture so it holds its shape.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sauce, egg. 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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