Name: Lemon Pudding
Ingredients: ½ cup coarsely ground nuts (walnuts or hickory nuts); 1 lemon (zest and juice); 1 cup sugar; 1 cup flour; 3 eggs; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 pint bread crumbs; water (as needed)

Why it works: Nuts and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,180 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lemon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, ground nuts, flour, and sugar.
Add the grated rind and strained juice of the lemon to the mixture.
Moisten with the eggs and enough water to create a thick batter.

Steam

Pour the mixture into an oiled pudding dish.
Steam for three hours.

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.

Nuts + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,180 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Nuts + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together174 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 moisture and structure as it sets.
Flour: Adds body and structure so the pudding holds together when cooked.
Bread crumbs: Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up liquid for a soft, moist texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon: Adds acidity and aroma from the zest and juice.