Name: Treacle Pudding
Ingredients: plain pastry dough; treacle (molasses); currants; melted butter

Why it works: Currant and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Treacle Pudding

Ingredients

plain pastry dough
treacle (molasses)
currants
melted butter

Directions

Roll out the pastry dough thinly.
Spread a thick layer of treacle over the dough.
Sprinkle currants on top of the treacle.
Roll the dough up tightly.
Wrap it in a cloth and boil for 1 hour.
Serve with melted butter.

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.

Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Molasses + curranttop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,817 recipes
Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,123 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).