Name: An English Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 8 eggs; 1 pound flour, sifted; 1 pound powdered sugar; 1 pound suet, finely shredded; ½ pint milk; 1 grated nutmeg; ½ cup brandy; 1 pound currants, washed, picked, and dried; 1 pound raisins, stoned and floured

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

An English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the eggs very light.
Add the sifted flour and powdered sugar; mix until light.
Stir in the finely shredded suet, milk, grated nutmeg, and brandy.
Fold in the currants and floured raisins.

Boil

Tie the mixture in a thick cloth and boil steadily for 8 hours.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and add lightness when beaten.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Suet: Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the batter stay light.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Currants: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Tie the mixture in a thick cloth and boil steadily for 8 hours. The cloth must be tight and well floured so the pudding holds its shape. The water must keep up a steady boil, since uneven or weak heat leaves the pudding heavy and wet inside.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, milk, nutmeg, brandy, raisin):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Lemonfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, milk, nutmeg, brandy, raisin. 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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Brandy Cream21 recipes

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An English Plum Pudding