Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Mix together the sugar, molasses, sweet milk, melted butter, raisins, currants, flour, baking soda, salt, and spices until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam the pudding for 2 hours without lifting the lid.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the texture as it cooks.
- Molasses
- Adds depth, dark color and moisture, along with sweetness.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender crumb.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar to form a batter.
The step that matters
Steam without lifting the lid. Lifting the lid releases steam and drops the temperature, which can cause the pudding to sink or cook unevenly. Steady steam keeps the heat even while the batter sets.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, milk, butter, raisin, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, milk, butter, raisin, 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.
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