Name: Wedding Cake Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ½ cup butter; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons salt; 4 cups flour; 1 cup raisins; ½ cup chopped almonds or walnuts

Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Wedding Cake Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, butter, and sweet milk.
Add the baking soda, salt, and flour, and stir until well combined.
Fold in the raisins and chopped nuts.

Steam

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for three hours.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,781 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweet flavor to the pudding.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses acid to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and pockets of sweetness throughout the pudding.

“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.