Name: To Make a Transparent Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup calf's-foot jelly; a few Jordan almonds; a few raisins; a little citron; a little candied lemon; a few currants

Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

To Make a Transparent Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make your calf's-foot jelly very stiff.
Pour ½ cup of jelly into a china basin and let it set.
Blanch and slice the almonds, raisins, citron, and candied lemon.
Arrange the sliced ingredients over the jelly and sprinkle in some currants.
Pour more jelly on top until it is an inch higher.
Once set, layer in more almonds, raisins, citron, and candied lemon, followed by more jelly.
Repeat layering until the basin is full.
Let it stand overnight and then turn it out.

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.

Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lemon + curranttop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).