Name: Brown Pudding
Ingredients: 3 large eggs; ¾ cup sugar; ¾ cup all-purpose flour; ½ cup butter; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 4 tablespoons raspberry jam

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brown Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.
Add the sugar, flour, butter, baking soda, and raspberry jam. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

Steam the pudding for 2 hours.
Serve warm with cream sauce.

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.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + raspberrytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,308 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs: Beaten eggs add structure and lift to the batter as it sets.
All-purpose flour: Flour forms the starch and gluten framework that holds the pudding together.
Butter: Butter adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar: Sugar adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown and stay moist.
Baking soda: Baking soda reacts to lift the batter and help it rise.
Raspberry jam: Jam adds fruit sweetness, acidity and moisture to the batter.