Name: Spinach Pudding
Ingredients: 6 tablespoons cooked spinach, pressed and chopped; 6 tablespoons bread crumbs, soaked in milk and drained; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg or mace; 4 eggs, beaten

Why it works: Spinach and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 603 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spinach Pudding

Ingredients

6 tablespoons cooked spinach, pressed and chopped
6 tablespoons bread crumbs, soaked in milk and drained
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg or mace
4 eggs, beaten

Directions

Prepare

Combine spinach, bread crumbs, salt, nutmeg or mace, and beaten eggs in a bowl. Mix all ingredients well.
Butter a pudding mold.
Pour the mixture into the mold.

Cook and serve

Boil for 1.5 hours.
Serve with melted butter or shrimp 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.

Spinach + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together603 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,997 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Bread crumbs: Soak up milk and give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Spinach: Provides the main flavour and bulk, with moisture that the crumbs and eggs absorb.
Nutmeg or mace: Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that complements the spinach.