Name: Muffin Pudding, with Dried Fruit, or Sweetmeats
Ingredients: 1½ cups milk; 4 muffins; ½ cup brandy; ½ pound dried fruit; 1 nutmeg, grated; 2 ounces Jordan almonds, blanched and pounded; 6 eggs

Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Muffin Pudding, with Dried Fruit, or Sweetmeats

Ingredients

Directions

Boil coriander seeds, lemon peel, and sugar in milk.
Strain the milk over the muffins and let it cool.
Mash the muffins with a wooden spoon.
Add brandy, dried fruit, grated nutmeg, and pounded almonds to the mixture.
Mix well and boil in a basin or bake in a dish with a crust.
For a simpler version, substitute currants for sweetmeats.

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.

Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,115 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).