Name: Cranberry Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup sour milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups molasses; 1 teaspoon salt; 3 cups flour; 2 cups raw cranberries

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cranberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix together sour milk, baking soda, molasses, salt, and flour until well combined.
Gently fold in the raw cranberries.
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

Steam and serve

Steam for 1.5 hours.
Serve with 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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour 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

Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, lightening the batter.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the batter.
Flour: Provides structure as its starch and proteins set during steaming.
Raw cranberries: Add tart bursts of fruit that contrast with the sweet, dense batter.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.