Name: Date Pudding
Ingredients: 1 ¼ cups sugar; 1 cup flour; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 egg; 1 cup dates or raisins; ½ teaspoon baking soda; nutmeg to taste

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, bread crumbs, sweet milk, egg, dates or raisins, baking soda, and nutmeg.
Beat the mixture until well combined.

Steam and serve

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 2 hours.
Serve warm with cream.

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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + datestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together100 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Dates + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together194 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the starch structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Egg: Binds the batter and helps it set firm during steaming.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidity in the dough to lighten the texture and help it rise.
Dates or raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and add body, giving a softer, more tender crumb.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, bread, milk, egg, nutmeg):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, bread, milk, egg, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.