Name: Rice Pudding
Ingredients: 2 oz Caroline rice (washed); 1 oz suet; 1 pint milk; rind of 1 lemon; 2 oz sultana raisins; a little nutmeg; 2 oz currants; 2 eggs (optional)

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Put the rice in a saucepan with water and stir until it boils.
Boil for 3 to 4 minutes, then strain and pour over fresh water until it boils again.
Let it simmer quietly, adding the lemon rind and suet while boiling.
Cook slowly until the rice is thick, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Stir in the fruit, sugar, and beaten eggs, along with a little nutmeg.
Bake until firm; if the oven is too hot, place a pan of water in the oven.

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.

Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, lemon, raisin, nutmeg, egg):

Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Orangefits better
Currantthe original

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