Why it works: Walnut and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,230 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Cherry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
In a bowl, mix in the melted butter, beaten eggs, and milk to form a batter.
Assemble and bake
Butter a mold and pour the batter into it.
Place the pitted cherries on top of the batter and sprinkle with sugar, pressing them down.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, combine 1 cup of sugar, 1 egg, walnut-sized butter, and 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of cold water.
Boil nearly 1 pint of water, then stir in the flour mixture and other ingredients.
Stir until the sauce thickens, then flavor with nutmeg and brandy.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,230 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and turns light.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
- Sour cherries
- Add tart acidity and fruit moisture that contrasts with the sweet batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps tenderize the crumb.
The step that matters
Thickening the sauce. Flour starch only thickens when heated in liquid, and the cold-water slurry must be added to boiling water while stirring, so the starch swells evenly instead of forming lumps.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, milk, sauce, nutmeg):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, milk, sauce, nutmeg. 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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