Name: Raspberry Pudding
Ingredients: 2 eggs; equal weight of flour; equal weight of sugar; equal weight of butter; 2 tablespoons raspberry jam; 1 teaspoon baking soda; cold water (as needed)

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raspberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the sugar and butter together until creamy.
Add the flour, eggs, and raspberry jam, mixing well.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little cold water and add it to the mixture.

Steam

Steam the pudding for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,308 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Flour: Provides the main structure of the pudding once cooked.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps create a light, creamy base with the butter.
Butter: Adds richness and tenderness to the pudding's texture.
Baking soda: Reacts to lighten the batter so the pudding rises and becomes less dense.
Raspberry jam: Adds fruit sweetness and a raspberry aroma and flavour.