Name: Boiled Bread Pudding
Ingredients: 5 eggs; 2 cups sugar; ½ cup molasses; ⅓ cup brandy; ½ nutmeg, grated; ½ teaspoon ground cloves; grated rind of 1 lemon; ½ pound suet, chopped; 1½ pounds raisins

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boiled Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread as directed above.
In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, molasses, brandy, nutmeg, ground cloves, lemon rind, chopped suet, and raisins.
Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Transfer the mixture to a suitable pot and 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.

Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,070 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,150 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, molasses, brandy, nutmeg, clove, raisin):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Orangefits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, brandy, nutmeg, clove, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.