Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Raked Stuffed Haddock, Currant and Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the haddock by dividing it into portions.
Roast two potatoes until tender.
Mix currants, suet, and sugar with flour to create the pudding mixture.
Form the mixture into a pudding shape and wrap it in a pudding cloth.
Dip the cloth in boiling water, squeeze it dry, and sprinkle with flour before wrapping the pudding.
Steam the pudding until cooked through.
Serve with roasted potatoes and brown sauce.
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.
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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Potato + saucetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,073 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, potato, sauce):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Avocadofits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, potato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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