Name: Fruit Pudding
Ingredients: 3 eggs; ½ cup dark molasses; 3 large apples, chopped fine; 1 cup flour; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup raisins

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 ↓

Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine the eggs and dark molasses.
Add the chopped apples, flour, bread crumbs, baking soda, and raisins. Mix well.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

Steam for 2 hours.
Serve with any good 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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,790 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 give the pudding its set structure.
Dark molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep, rich flavour.
Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and add body, giving the pudding a tender crumb.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the pudding rise.
Apples: Add moisture and fruity tartness that balances the sweet molasses.

Swap the apple

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

Figfits better
Datesfits better
Vanillafits better
Applethe original

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