Name: Half Pay Pudding
Ingredients: 1 lb suet, finely chopped; 1 lb currants; 4 lb breadcrumbs; 4 lb raisins; 4 lb flour; 3 tablespoons treacle, melted; 4 pints milk; 1 small teaspoon baking powder

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Half Pay Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Add baking powder to flour.
Mix in breadcrumbs, suet, currants, raisins, and melted treacle.
Stir in the milk until well combined.

Steam

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding basin.
Cover with greased paper and steam for 3½ hours.

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 + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,155 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Flour: Forms the body of the pudding and gives it structure as it steams.
Baking powder: Releases gas as it heats, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Breadcrumbs: Absorb liquid and soften the texture, giving a light, tender crumb.
Treacle: Adds sweetness, colour and a deep, molasses-like flavour.
Milk: Hydrates the dry ingredients so they bind into a batter-like mixture.