Name: Hasty Pudding
Ingredients: water; flour; coarse meal; coarse sea salt; cream; molasses

Why it works: Flour and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hasty Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Boil some water in a pot.
Gradually add flour to thicken the water, stirring continuously.
Sift in coarse meal until the mixture is thick.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste and continue boiling.
Transfer to a bowl and let it cool slightly.
Serve with cream and molasses.

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 + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,408 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).