Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Marmalade Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the chopped suet, bread crumbs, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl.
Add the lemon zest and marmalade.
Beat the eggs and mix everything together until well combined.
Cook and serve
Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.
Boil the mold in water for three hours.
Serve with sifted sugar and sherry.
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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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Suet
- Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
- Bread crumbs
- Provide the bulk and structure that hold the pudding together.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
- Marmalade
- Adds sweetness, acidity and citrus aroma to the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds to its soft, moist texture.
The step that matters
Boil the mold in water for three hours. The mold must stay submerged and the water must keep simmering for the full time. Steaming gently sets the eggs and melts the suet evenly, so the pudding cooks through without drying out or turning watery.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Datesfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg. 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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