Name: Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients: 1 lb figs, chopped; 2 cups bread crumbs; 1 cup brown sugar; ½ lb suet, finely chopped; 2 eggs; 1 lemon, juiced and zested; 1 tablespoon molasses; ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg; 1 tablespoon flour

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 ↓

Chocolate 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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix together the figs, bread crumbs, brown sugar, suet, eggs, lemon juice and zest, molasses, nutmeg, and flour until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until set.
Serve cold.

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.

Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together510 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, bread, sugar, egg, molasses, nutmeg, flour):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Datesfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, bread, sugar, egg, molasses, nutmeg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.