Name: Another Whortleberry Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 quart milk; 1 teaspoon salt; flour (enough to make a thick batter); whortleberries (as many as will mix in the batter)

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Another Whortleberry Pudding

Ingredients

1 cup molasses
1 quart milk
1 teaspoon salt
flour (enough to make a thick batter)
whortleberries (as many as will mix in the batter)

Directions

Prepare the batter

In a bowl, combine molasses, milk, and salt.
Add flour gradually until you achieve a thick batter.
Gently fold in the whortleberries.

Cook and serve

Pour the mixture into a pot and boil for four hours.
Serve with sweet sauce.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Thickens the milk and molasses into a batter that holds its shape while cooking.
Milk: Adds liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the pudding a soft, moist body.
Molasses: Provides sweetness, dark colour and a rich flavour.
Whortleberries: Add tart fruit flavour and pockets of juicy texture throughout the pudding.

“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.