Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Southport Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mince the apples, suet, and lemon peel or raisins very finely.
Mix and steam
In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, sugar, baking powder, minced ingredients, salt, nutmeg, and eggs.
Add milk if the mixture is too dry.
Steam the mixture for 2 hours.
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.
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Bread crumbs
- Provide the bulk and body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
- Suet
- Adds richness and moisture to the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding its flavour.
- Baking powder
- Produces gas that lightens the pudding as it steams.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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