Name: Whortleberry Pudding
Ingredients: one pint of whortleberries; one cup of molasses; half cup of water; three cups of flour; one teaspoon of soda; one teaspoon of salt

Why it works: Molasses and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whortleberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Boil for three hours or bake for one.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

562Calories

13 gProtein

1 gFat

123 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Whortleberries: Provide the fruit flavour and moisture in the pudding.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and its acidity reacts with the soda to help lift the batter.
Flour: Forms the starch and gluten structure that sets the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, helping the pudding rise.

“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.