Name: Date Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup chopped nuts; 1 cup chopped dates; 2 eggs; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder

Why it works: Nuts and dates work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 178 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine chopped nuts, chopped dates, eggs, flour, and baking powder. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake for 30 minutes.
Serve warm with whipped cream.

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.

Nuts + datestop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together178 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Nuts + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,180 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Dates + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Dates + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together737 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the pudding as it bakes.
Flour: Provides structure so the pudding holds together rather than collapsing.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the pudding rise and turn lighter.
Dates: Add natural sweetness and moisture to the pudding.
Nuts: Add texture and fat, giving the pudding a chewy, rich bite.