Name: Shelford Pudding
Ingredients: ¾ pound currants or raisins; 1 pound suet; 1 pound flour; 6 eggs; ½ cup milk; zest of 1 lemon; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Shelford Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a large bowl, mix the currants or raisins, suet, flour, eggs, milk, lemon zest, and salt until well combined.
Shape the mixture into a melon shape and wrap it in a cloth.

Cook

Boil the pudding in a pot of water for 6 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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Currants or raisins: Add sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the pudding.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set firmly as it cooks.
Milk: Adds moisture so the batter mixes into a workable mixture.