Name: Impromptu Pudding
Ingredients: 2 cups mince meat; 2 cups flour; 1½ teaspoons baking powder; 5 eggs

Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Impromptu Pudding

Ingredients

2 cups mince meat
2 cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
5 eggs

Directions

Prepare the batter

In a large bowl, combine the mince meat, flour, and baking powder.
Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture, stirring until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

Steam the pudding for 3 hours.
Serve with wine 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.

Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,529 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure and moisture as they set during cooking.
Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and become lighter.
Mince meat: Supplies the main filling and richness, giving the pudding its savory body.

“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.