Name: Christmas Pudding
Ingredients: 2 lbs boiled beef, chopped fine; 1 lb minced beef suet; 5 lbs juicy apples, chopped fine; 3 lbs chopped raisins; 2 lbs currants; ½ lb citron, chopped; 3 tablespoons cinnamon; 2 tablespoons mace; 1 tablespoon allspice; 1 tablespoon nutmeg; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 3 lbs brown sugar; 2 quarts sweet cider; 4 eggs; 1 pint milk; flour for dusting

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, apple, raisin, cinnamon, mace, allspice, nutmeg):

Figfits better
Orangefits better
Lemonfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, apple, raisin, cinnamon, mace, allspice, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Christmas Pudding