Name: Date Pudding
Ingredients: ½ pound suet, chopped fine; 1 pound dates, pitted and chopped; ½ pound bread crumbs; ½ pound sugar; 1 cup milk; 1 cup flour; 1 nutmeg, grated; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking soda

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

Mix the dry ingredients (suet, bread crumbs, sugar, flour, and grated nutmeg) thoroughly.
Add the milk, eggs, and baking soda to the dry mixture and combine well.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam

Steam for 4 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 + 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).
Dates + breadtop 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

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
Baking soda: Reacts with the mixture to lighten its crumb and help it rise.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and give the pudding a tender, body-filled texture.
Flour: Provides structure so the pudding holds its shape after steaming.

Swap the dates

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, milk, flour, nutmeg, egg. 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.