Name: Cracker Pudding
Ingredients: 6 crackers; 3 tablespoons melted butter; 4 tablespoons sugar; 1 tablespoon molasses; 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1 quart scalded milk; 4 eggs; 1/2 cup chopped raisins

Why it works: Nutmeg and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Cracker Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Break the crackers into a bowl.
Mix in melted butter, sugar, molasses, nutmeg, and salt.
Pour the scalded milk over the mixture and let it cool.
Once cool, add the eggs and chopped raisins.
Mix well and serve with 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.

Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, molasses, milk, egg, raisin):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegthe original
Gingerfits less well
Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, milk, egg, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.