Name: Another Way to Make Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 4 ounces apples, finely minced; 4 ounces currants, cleaned and dried; 4 ounces grated bread; 2 ounces raisins, stoned and minced; 2 ounces pounded loaf sugar; ½ nutmeg, grated; a little candied orange or lemon peel; 4 eggs, well beaten; 1½ ounces melted butter, just warm

Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Plum Pudding

Ingredients

4 ounces apples, finely minced
4 ounces currants, cleaned and dried
4 ounces grated bread
2 ounces raisins, stoned and minced
2 ounces pounded loaf sugar
½ nutmeg, grated
a little candied orange or lemon peel
4 eggs, well beaten
1½ ounces melted butter, just warm

Directions

Mix all the ingredients well together.
Butter a pudding shape and pour in the mixture.
If the pudding does not fill the shape, add a slice of bread crumb at the bottom.
Boil for 4 hours.
Serve with a sweet 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.

Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,746 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 (apple, bread, raisin, sugar, nutmeg, orange, egg):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Cranberryfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, bread, raisin, sugar, nutmeg, orange, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.