Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Rolled Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Roll out a thin layer of light puff pastry or a good suet crust.
Spread fruit jam evenly over the paste, leaving an inch from the edge.
In a bowl, mix fine brown sugar with the grated lemon rind and strained lemon juice.
Spread this mixture over the jam layer.
Roll and boil
Roll the paste up carefully and pinch the ends to seal.
Wrap the pudding in a cloth and secure the ends tightly.
Boil the pudding for 1 to 2 hours, depending on its size and ingredients.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 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
- Flour
- Forms the pastry that wraps and holds the filling together.
- Suet or butter
- Adds fat that makes the crust tender and rich.
- Fruit jam
- Provides sweetness and a fruity layer that softens during boiling.
- Fine brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth to the filling.
- Lemon rind and juice
- Adds bright acidity and aroma that cut through the richness.
The step that matters
Sealing the roll. If the ends or seam are not pinched and the cloth is not secured tightly, filling can leak out and the pudding can lose its shape while boiling. A tight, even roll keeps the layers together as the pastry cooks in the water.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, lemon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, lemon. 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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