Name: Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients: slices of cake; sultana raisins; cut citron; eggs; milk

Why it works: Raisin and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,155 recipes. Both carry decanoic acid, which smells acides aroma. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Layer slices of cake in a mould, alternating with sultana raisins and cut citron.
In a bowl, whisk together eggs and milk to create a custard mixture.
Pour the custard mixture over the layered cake.
Bake until set.
For steamed pudding, line a mould with raisins and citron, fill with sponge cake and macaroons, pour custard, and steam until cooked.
Turn out the pudding onto a plate to serve.

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.

Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,155 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,556 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).