Name: English Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 8 oz. soda; 2 cups sugar; 1 lb. raisins; 1 lb. currants; 1 lb. suet, chopped fine; 1 oz. cinnamon; 4 eggs; ½ oz. coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 1 pint water; Flour to make easy dough

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

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 + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour: Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and supports browning on the surface.
Raisins: Add sweetness, chewiness and moisture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Tie the sack securely. A tight seal keeps boiling water from soaking into the pudding, which would make it waterlogged. Keep the water boiling for the full five hours so the pudding cooks evenly through.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Lemonfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, cinnamon, egg, flour. 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.

English Plum Pudding