Name: Carrot Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup grated raw potatoes; 1 cup grated raw carrots; 1 cup brown sugar; 1 cup powdered suet; ½ teaspoon salt; 1½ cups raisins; 1½ cups currants; 1½ cups flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda

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 ↓

Carrot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

Steam the pudding for 3 to 4 hours.
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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,029 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated raw potatoes: Adds moisture and body to the batter, helping the pudding stay moist as it steams.
Grated raw carrots: Adds moisture and sweetness, and gives the pudding its character and color.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a molasses flavor, and helps keep the pudding moist.
Powdered suet: Adds fat, giving the pudding a rich, tender texture.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic ingredients to help the pudding rise and lighten.

Swap the currant

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

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Orangefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, carrot, sugar, raisin, 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.