Name: Marmalade Pudding
Ingredients: 4 lb suet, finely chopped; ½ lb bread crumbs; ½ lb brown sugar; 2 oz ground rice; 2 large tablespoons orange marmalade; 1 egg; ½ teaspoon baking powder; 1 tablespoon milk

Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Marmalade Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, combine the chopped suet, brown sugar, bread crumbs, and ground rice.
In a separate bowl, beat together the marmalade, egg, and milk.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.
Transfer the mixture into a buttered pudding mold.

Steam

Steam the pudding for four 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.

Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Rice + orangetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,067 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Bread + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Bread crumbs: Provide bulk and body, soaking up moisture to give the pudding its structure.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a deeper, molasses-like flavour.
Ground rice: Gives a softer, more tender texture than flour alone.
Egg: Binds the mixture and helps it set firm as it cooks.
Orange marmalade: Adds sweetness, citrus acidity and aroma that flavours the whole pudding.