Name: Carrot Pudding
Ingredients: ½ cup chopped suet; ½ cup bread crumbs; ½ cup grated carrots; ½ cup sugar; ½ cup raisins; 2 eggs; 1 tablespoon molasses; wine or brandy sauce (for serving)

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Carrot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a large bowl, combine the chopped suet, bread crumbs, grated carrots, sugar, raisins, eggs, and molasses. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold or heatproof dish.

Cook and serve

Boil the pudding in a pot of water for 2 hours.
Serve with wine or brandy sauce.

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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + carrottop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,628 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 cooks.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Grated carrots: Provide moisture and natural sweetness along with body.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Molasses: Adds depth of flavour, dark colour and extra moisture.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, raisin, egg, molasses, wine):

Sweet potatofits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, raisin, egg, molasses, wine. 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.