Name: Gold Pudding
Ingredients: 6 oz (1¾ cups) bread crumbs; ½ lb (8 oz) suet; 2 tablespoons marmalade; 1 lemon (grated rind and juice); 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon carbonate of soda; a little milk

Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Gold Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the bread crumbs and suet thoroughly.
Add the marmalade, grated lemon rind, lemon juice, and dissolved carbonate of soda in a little milk.
Incorporate the well-beaten eggs.
Pour the mixture into a mold and boil for 3½ 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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Bread crumbs: Provide the bulk and structure that hold the pudding together.
Suet: Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist as it cooks.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Carbonate of soda: Reacts with the acidic lemon and marmalade to lighten the texture.
Marmalade: Adds sweetness and a bitter-citrus flavour that balances the richness.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a mold and boil for 3½ hours. The pudding must be sealed and kept at a steady simmer for the full time, since the soda has already been mixed in and starts reacting right away. Letting the water boil dry or the mold leak would leave the pudding dense or undercooked.