Name: Whole Wheat Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup raisins; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 egg whites; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup boiling milk; juice of 1 lemon

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Whole Wheat Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Combine molasses, raisins, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
Steam the mixture for 2½ hours.
For the sauce, beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat.
Pour in boiling milk and add lemon juice, mixing well.

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 + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,155 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, raisin, egg, sugar, milk):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Datesfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, raisin, egg, sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.