Name: Puzzle Pudding
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 ounces suet; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teacup skim milk; 1 teacup raspberry jam; 1 pinch salt

Why it works: Milk and raspberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,014 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puzzle Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

Mix the sugar, flour, suet, baking soda, skim milk, raspberry jam, and salt together.
Steam the mixture for two hours or more.

Serve

Prepare a sauce and add a teaspoon of raspberry jam to it before serving.

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.

Milk + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,014 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + raspberrytop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,262 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic jam to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Raspberry jam: Adds fruity sweetness and acidity, and flavour to the pudding.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning and a softer crumb.