Name: Whortleberry Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint whortleberries; 1 cup molasses; ½ cup water; 3 cups flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon 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

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.

Mix and pour

Combine whortleberries, molasses, water, flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, then mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Bake and boil

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.
Boil for 3 hours.

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.

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: Add moisture and fruity flavor, and colour the pudding.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, depth of flavor, and moisture.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the pudding rise and lighten.

“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.