Name: Black Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint molasses; 1 pint blackberry jam; 1 teacup buttermilk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; enough flour to make a stiff batter

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Black Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine molasses, blackberry jam, buttermilk, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Gradually add flour until you achieve a stiff batter.
Steam or bake the mixture until cooked through.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together362 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and gives the pudding its deep colour and flavour.
Blackberry jam: Adds fruit sweetness, moisture and a bright berry flavour throughout the batter.
Buttermilk: Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the pudding rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Flour: Provides structure, setting the batter into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cooks.

Swap the blackberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, buttermilk, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Blueberryfits better
Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, buttermilk, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour. 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.