Name: Fig Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup chopped suet; 1 cup milk; 8 cups flour; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; 1 pint figs, chopped fine

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix together molasses, suet, spices, and chopped figs.
Dissolve baking soda in 1 teaspoon of hot water and mix with milk; add to the other ingredients.
Beat eggs until light and stir into the mixture.
Add flour and beat thoroughly.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together614 recipes

Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
Nutmeg + figtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together510 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figthe original
Blueberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.