Name: Military Pudding
Ingredients: 1 lb suet; ½ lb bread crumbs; ¼ lb moist sugar; the rind and juice of 1 large lemon

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Military Pudding

Ingredients

1 lb suet
½ lb bread crumbs
¼ lb moist sugar
the rind and juice of 1 large lemon

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

Chop the suet finely.
Mix the suet with the breadcrumbs and sugar.
Mince the lemon rind and strain the juice.
Stir the lemon rind and juice into the other ingredients and mix well.

Bake and serve

Put the mixture into small buttered cups.
Bake for about 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
Turn them out onto a dish and serve with lemon 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.

Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,445 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Absorbs the fat and gives the pudding its body and soft structure.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Lemon rind and juice: Adds aroma and acidity that cut through the richness of the suet.