Name: Cranberry Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup hot water; 1 cup uncooked cranberries; 1 teaspoon baking soda; flour (to make a moderately stiff batter); 1 cup sugar (for sauce); ⅓ cup butter (for sauce); 1 cup cream (for sauce)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cranberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine molasses, hot water, uncooked cranberries, and baking soda.
Add flour gradually until you achieve a moderately stiff batter.

Steam and serve

Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold and steam for 2 hours.
For the sauce, mix sugar and butter until creamy.
Stir in the cream and warm slightly before serving.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Molasses: Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and its acidity works with the baking soda to lift the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas, helping the pudding rise and become light.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together once the batter sets.
Uncooked cranberries: Add tart bursts of fruit that contrast with the sweet molasses.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth texture to the sauce.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, pourable body to the sauce.

“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.