Why it works: Corn and orange work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 586 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine water, corn starch, butter, and sugar.
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.
Once boiling, remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg and orange juice.
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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Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Corn starch
- Thickens the sauce when heated with the liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness.
- Egg
- Adds richness and body to the sauce.
- Orange juice
- Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg off the heat. Stirring constantly while the starch mixture comes to a boil keeps the corn starch dispersed and prevents lumps and scorching. Removing the pan from the heat before adding the beaten egg lowers the risk of the egg scrambling in the hot liquid.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, butter, 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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