Name: Cossacks' Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 lb flour; 3-4 lb raisins; 3-4 lb pork fat, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons syrup or sugar; 1-2 pints water

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cossacks' Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix together the flour, raisins, chopped pork fat, syrup or sugar, and water.
Tie the mixture tightly in a cloth.
Boil for 4 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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,540 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Raisin + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together336 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + porktop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,187 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + porktop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together193 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and pork barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,187 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

Flour: Provides the starchy structure that sets into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cooks.
Raisins: Add sweetness, chewy texture, and moisture throughout the pudding.
Pork fat: Adds richness and a tender texture as it melts into the mixture.
Syrup or sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly and taste rounder.

“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.