Name: Carrot-pudding
Ingredients: 1 lb carrots; 1 tablespoon sugar; 3 drops essence of lemon; 1 egg; 1 cup milk; dripping (for greasing)

Why it works: Carrot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,351 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Carrot-pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the carrots

Scrape, wash, and boil the carrots until tender.
Pass the carrots through a wire sieve into a basin.
Add sugar and essence of lemon to the carrots.

Make the custard

Make a custard by blending the egg and milk together.
Combine the custard with the carrot mixture.

Bake and serve

Grease a pie dish and pour in the mixture.
Dot the top with small pieces of dripping.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 minutes.

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.

Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,351 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Carrot + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Carrots: Cooked and sieved, they form the bulk and smooth body of the pudding.
Egg: Sets the custard as it cooks, giving the pudding structure.
Milk: Combines with the egg to form the custard, adding moisture and softness.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly at the surface.