Name: Blackberry Pudding
Ingredients: ¾ cup butter; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup blackberry jam; 3 eggs; 1½ cups flour; 3 tablespoons sweet milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Blackberry 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.

Make the batter

Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the blackberry jam, eggs, flour, and sweet milk with dissolved baking soda. Mix until well combined.
Pour into a well buttered cake pan.

Bake and serve

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.
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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together315 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + blackberrytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together522 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb while creaming with sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps trap air when creamed with butter.
Blackberry jam: Provides fruit flavor, sweetness, and moisture to the pudding.
Eggs: Add structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the pudding as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity in the jam to help the pudding rise.