Why it works: Milk and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
Sponge: Cake Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Pour boiling milk over the sponge-cakes.
Follow the same directions as for bread pudding.
Optionally, add muscatel raisins and sherry or brandy if desired.
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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Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,479 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Raisin + sherrytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together386 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sherry):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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