Name: Sponge Pudding to Boil
Ingredients: Butter (for greasing); Stone plums (enough to line the mould); Sponge cake (sliced); Ratafia cakes; ½ cup milk; 4 eggs (beaten); 2 tablespoons brandy or wine

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sponge Pudding to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Grease a pudding mould with butter.
Line the mould with stone plums.
Layer sliced sponge cake and ratafia cakes alternately until the mould is filled.
In a bowl, mix the milk with the beaten eggs and pour over the layered cakes.
Add brandy or wine to the mixture.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Plum + brandytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together168 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Plum + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together406 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).