Name: Blue-grass Pudding
Ingredients: 5 eggs, beaten separately; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup butter; 3 cups flour; 1 cup buttermilk; 1 pound raisins, chopped; ½ teaspoon baking soda; Spices, to taste

Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Blue-grass Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Grease a pan well.

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine the beaten eggs, sugar, molasses, butter, flour, buttermilk, chopped raisins, and baking soda, and mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.

Steam and serve

Steam for 2½ hours.
Serve with lemon 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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the pudding.
Molasses: Adds dark color, moisture and a deep sweet flavor.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to lighten the batter.
Buttermilk: Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.

“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.