Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Fig Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the rolled butter crackers, chopped figs, and chopped suet.
Add the well beaten eggs and sugar, mixing thoroughly.
Serve with a generous amount of hard sauce, as this is a rich pudding.
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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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + figtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,042 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,241 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 (butter, egg, sugar, sauce):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonfits about as well
- Figthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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