Name: Small Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup milk; ½ cup sugar; ½ cup molasses; ½ cup butter; 2 cups flour; 1 cup raisins; 1 teaspoon baking soda

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 ↓

Small Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Combine milk, sugar, molasses, and butter in a large bowl.
Mix in flour, raisins, and baking soda until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

Steam the pudding for 2 hours.
Serve warm 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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses acidity to lift and lighten the pudding.
Molasses: Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with a slight acidity.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, molasses, butter, flour):

Raisinthe original
Vanillafits about as well
Figfits less well
Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, molasses, butter, 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.