Name: Date Pudding
Ingredients: ½ pound bread crumbs; ¼ pound suet; ½ pound dates, chopped; 5 ounces brown sugar; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 eggs

Why it works: Bread and dates work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 100 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a large bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, suet, chopped dates, brown sugar, nutmeg, and salt.
Add the eggs and mix until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold or heatproof dish.

Cook and serve

Boil for 2½ hours in a pot of simmering water.
Serve warm with your choice of 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.

Bread + datestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together100 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Dates + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together194 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,997 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together24,744 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 body that hold the pudding together.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Dates: Add natural sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil for 2½ hours in simmering water. The water must stay at a gentle simmer for the full time. Too hard a boil can make the pudding rough or let water seep in, while letting it cool or drop too low lengthens cooking and can leave the centre undercooked.