Name: Amber Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound butter; ¾ pound white sugar; 15 egg yolks, beaten; candied orange, to taste; pastry for lining the dish

Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Amber Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the sugar until well combined.
Add the beaten egg yolks and mix thoroughly.
Incorporate candied orange for color and flavor.

Assemble and bake

Line a dish with pastry and pour the mixture in.
Cover with another layer of pastry.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Serve

Serve hot or cold.

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + orangetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, tender texture.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown as it bakes.
Egg yolks: Thicken and bind the filling as they cook, giving it structure and richness.
Candied orange: Adds aroma and flavor, along with color to the filling.
Pastry: Forms the lining and top layer, holding the filling in during baking.