Name: Sponge Pudding
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 2 teaspoons Maglo (or vanilla extract); 1 cup sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 eggs; 1 cup milk; 2 cups flour; ½ teaspoon flavoring

Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Sponge Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the well-beaten eggs and mix well.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture alternately with the milk.
Stir in the flavoring.

Steam and serve

Pour the batter into a greased mold and steam for 1½ hours.
Serve with sweet preserves.

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.

Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,241 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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: Creams with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Flour: Provides the main structure of the pudding as it sets.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter to make the pudding light and rise.
Milk: Adds moisture and loosens the batter for a soft crumb.
Sugar: Sweetens the pudding and helps create a tender texture when creamed.