Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the filling
Grate the yellow part of the orange rind and squeeze the juice from the oranges.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar, nutmeg, and flour until smooth.
Add the milk and melted butter to the mixture and stir well.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.
Bake
Pour the mixture into pans lined with pastry and sprinkle sugar on top.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airy rise.
- Milk
- Provides moisture and a soft, tender custard texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the mixture and gives it body and structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
- Oranges
- Juice adds acidity and grated rind adds bright citrus aroma.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites trap air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so the pudding bakes flat and dense. Fold gently, in large strokes, until no white streaks remain.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, nutmeg, milk, flour, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, nutmeg, milk, flour, butter. 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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