Name: Carrot Puddihq
Ingredients: 1 pound grated carrots; ¾ pound chopped suet; ½ pound raisins; ½ pound currants; 4 tablespoons sugar; 8 tablespoons flour; spices to taste

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Carrot Puddihq

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the pudding

Combine grated carrots, chopped suet, raisins, currants, sugar, flour, and spices in a large pot.
Boil the mixture for 4 hours.

Bake and serve

Transfer to a greased baking dish and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.
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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,029 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated carrots: Provide the bulk and moisture that give the pudding its body.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Flour: Thickens the mixture and helps it hold together as it cooks.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps with browning on the surface.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Currants: Add small pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.