Name: Military Puddings
Ingredients: 1 lb suet, finely chopped; 1 lb bread crumbs; ½ lb moist sugar; rind and juice of 1 large lemon

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Military Puddings

Ingredients

1 lb suet, finely chopped
1 lb bread crumbs
½ lb moist sugar
rind and juice of 1 large lemon

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Mix the chopped suet with the bread crumbs and sugar.
Mince the lemon rind and strain the juice.

Make the mixture

Stir the rind and juice into the mixture.
Mix well and place the mixture into small buttered cups.

Bake and serve

Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour.
Turn out onto a dish and serve with lemon 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.

Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,445 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and gives it a rich, tender crumb.
Bread crumbs: Provide the bulk and structure that hold the pudding together.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, along with a deeper flavour from its molasses.
Lemon: Its rind adds fragrant aroma and its juice adds acidity that brightens the richness.