Name: Ginger Pudding
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 4 cups sugar; 2 cups butter; 2 teaspoons allspice; 2 teaspoons ginger; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 6 cups flour

Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and butter together until well combined.
Add the allspice, ginger, baking powder, and flour, mixing thoroughly.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Serve with hard or liquid 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.

Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,302 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the pudding as the batter sets.
Baking powder: Produces gas that lifts the batter so it rises while baking.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, allspice, flour):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, allspice, flour. 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.