Name: Shredded Wheat Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; ½ cup shredded wheat crumbs (2 biscuits); ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ cup molasses; 3 eggs; ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Why it works: Wheat and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 537 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Shredded Wheat 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, mix the shredded wheat crumbs, salt, molasses, eggs, and cinnamon.
Gradually beat in the milk until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

Bake and serve

Cover and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove the cover and bake until browned.
Serve with hard 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.

Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together537 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Biscuit + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together312 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Wheat + biscuittop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like pudding as it bakes.
Milk: Provides the liquid that gives the pudding its moist, tender body.
Shredded wheat crumbs: Form the bulk of the pudding and absorb liquid to give it body.
Molasses: Adds sweetness and deep flavour, and contributes to browning on top.

“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.