Name: Steam Pudding
Ingredients: 1½ cups flour; 1½ cups suet; 1 cup currants; 1 cup golden syrup; spices to taste; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Why it works: Syrup and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Steam Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Combine flour, suet, currants, golden syrup, spices, and cream of tartar in a bowl and mix until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold.
Steam for 4 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.

Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,540 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,077 recipes
Currant + syruptop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together329 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Currants: Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.
Golden syrup: Contributes sweetness and a moist, tender crumb.
Cream of tartar: Acts with other leavening to lighten the texture of the pudding.