Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fruit
Stew the small fruits and sweeten with sugar to taste.
Layer and chill
In a suitable dish, layer thin slices of bread, then pour the hot stewed fruit over it.
Repeat the layers of bread and fruit, finishing with a layer of bread on top.
Cover with a plate and let cool, then refrigerate.
Serve
Serve chilled with sugar and cream.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,789 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + breadtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,638 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Small fruits
- Provide the main flavour and moisture that soak into the bread as the pudding sets.
- Bread
- Absorbs the hot fruit juices and holds its shape, giving the pudding structure when chilled.
The step that matters
Pour the hot stewed fruit over the bread. Hot fruit softens the bread quickly and lets its juices soak evenly through each layer. Cooling and chilling then firm the pudding so it can be sliced and served.
“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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