Name: Walnut Date Pudding
Ingredients: 2 large eggs; 1 cup powdered sugar; 1 cup chopped walnuts; 1 cup finely chopped dates; 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder

Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Walnut Date Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Beat the eggs lightly.
Add the sugar, walnuts, and dates to the eggs.
Mix the flour with the baking powder and add it to the mixture.
Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake for 1 hour.
Serve with a glass of wine poured over the pudding and top with whipped cream.

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.

Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together302 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 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).
Dates + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together675 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 help set the pudding as it bakes.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the batter stay moist and tender.
Dates: Add moisture and natural sweetness to the pudding.
Walnuts: Add texture and a slightly toasty, nutty flavor.
All-purpose flour: Provides structure so the batter sets into a cohesive pudding.
Baking powder: Releases gas that lifts the batter and gives it a lighter crumb.