Name: Shredded Wheat Pudding
Ingredients: 1 shredded wheat biscuit; 1 cup milk; 1 large egg, beaten; ¼ teaspoon salt; 6 teaspoons sugar; ½ cup nut meats; flavoring (optional); fruit (optional); cream (for serving)

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Shredded Wheat Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Roll the shredded wheat biscuit until fine.

Make the pudding

In a bowl, combine the crushed biscuit, milk, beaten egg, salt, sugar, nut meats, and flavoring.
If desired, add any kind of fruit.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

Serve warm with cream.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + biscuittop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Biscuit + meattop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together159 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Biscuit + creamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,235 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg: Binds the mixture and helps the pudding set as it bakes.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that softens the biscuit and gives a creamy texture.
Shredded wheat biscuit: Provides the bulk and starch that thickens the pudding as it soaks up liquid.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning on the baked surface.

“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.