Name: A Common Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; 6 ounces finely minced beef suet; 1¼ pounds good boiling apples, peeled and cored; juice and grated rind of 1 small lemon (or nutmeg or cinnamon); 1 small slice of fresh butter (optional); 1-2 tablespoons orange or quince marmalade (optional for richer pudding)

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Common Apple Pudding

Ingredients

1 pound all-purpose flour
6 ounces finely minced beef suet
1¼ pounds good boiling apples, peeled and cored
juice and grated rind of 1 small lemon (or nutmeg or cinnamon)
1 small slice of fresh butter (optional)
1-2 tablespoons orange or quince marmalade (optional for richer pudding)

Directions

Make the pudding

Make a light crust by mixing flour and beef suet, then roll it thin.
Fill the crust with the boiling apples, lemon juice, and rind.
Tie the pudding in a cloth and boil for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Finish and boil

After Christmas, boil for an additional 20 to 30 minutes.
Stir in a small slice of butter when sweetening, if desired.
For a richer pudding, use butter instead of suet and add marmalade.

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 + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the light crust that holds the filling.
Beef suet: Fat that makes the crust tender and short.
Boiling apples: Provide the main filling, adding moisture and tart flavour.
Lemon: Juice adds acidity and the rind adds aroma to the apple filling.
Marmalade: Adds sweetness and a richer flavour in the optional variation.