Name: Paradise Pudding
Ingredients: 3 oz coarsely chopped apples; 3 oz sugar; 3 oz currants; 4 oz bread crumbs; 3 eggs; finely grated rind of 1 lemon; salt to taste; nutmeg to taste; 1 tablespoon brandy

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Paradise Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Turn the mixture into a well-buttered mold or basin.

Cook and serve

Steam for 2 hours.
Serve with a suitable 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.

Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding when steamed.
Bread crumbs: Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples and lemon.
Apples: Add moisture and fruity tartness to the pudding.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, bread, egg, lemon, nutmeg, brandy):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Apricotfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, bread, egg, lemon, nutmeg, brandy. 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.