Name: Suet Pudding
Ingredients: ¾ cup all-purpose flour; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon ground ginger; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1½ pounds beef suet, finely chopped; 4 cups milk; 6 large eggs, beaten

Why it works: Nutmeg and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a saucepan, combine flour, nutmeg, ginger, and salt.
Stir in the chopped beef suet until well mixed.
Add the milk and beaten eggs, mixing until smooth.

Prepare and cook

Butter a basin and dust it with flour.
Pour the batter into the prepared basin.
Boil for 2½ to 3 hours.
Serve with strong beef gravy.

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 + gingertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,324 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Beef suet: Provides fat that gives the pudding its rich, tender texture as it cooks.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
All-purpose flour: Thickens the batter and gives the pudding its structure as it cooks.
Milk: Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it fills the basin evenly.