Name: English Molasses Pudding
Ingredients: ¼ pound raw potatoes, scraped; ¼ pound raw carrots, scraped; ¼ pound currants; ¼ pound suet, chopped fine; ¼ pound flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon allspice; 2 tablespoons molasses

Why it works: Potato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

English Molasses Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the potatoes, carrots, currants, suet, flour, salt, and allspice together.
Stir in enough molasses to achieve a pudding-like consistency, about 2 tablespoons or more as needed.
Grease a pudding mold and pour in the mixture.

Cook and serve

Boil the pudding for 2 hours.
Serve with or without sweet 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.

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.

Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,021 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,359 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,302 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,029 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet: Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Flour: Provides the starch and structure that hold the pudding together.
Molasses: Binds the mixture to a pudding-like consistency and adds sweetness and depth.
Potatoes: Add body and moisture, giving the pudding a soft, dense texture.
Carrots: Add moisture and natural sweetness, adding bulk to the pudding.

The step that matters

Stir in the molasses gradually. Adding molasses in small amounts lets you judge the mixture's consistency. Too little leaves it crumbly, while too much makes it wet and heavy, so the pudding may not hold its shape.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, carrot, flour, allspice, molasses):

Raisinfits better
Orangefits better
Limefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, carrot, flour, allspice, molasses. 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.

Deep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipes

Molasses Cookies96 recipes

Molasses Cake90 recipes

Orange Potato Bread80 recipes

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English Molasses Pudding