Name: Leicester Pudding
Ingredients: 1 lb flour; ½ lb suet; 2 tablespoons raspberry jam; 2 tablespoons sugar (optional); 1 teaspoon baking powder; ½ pint milk; 1 egg; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Raspberry and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,014 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Leicester Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

In a bowl, mix the flour, suet, raspberry jam, sugar, baking powder, milk, egg, and salt until well combined.
Grease a basin and pour the mixture into it.

Steam

Steam the pudding for 2 hours.

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.

Raspberry + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,014 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 cooks.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Baking powder: Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Egg: Binds the mixture and helps set its texture as it cooks.
Raspberry jam: Adds sweetness, fruity flavour and some moisture to the pudding.