Name: Railroad Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup raisins, chopped fine; 1 cup suet, chopped; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 egg; 1 teaspoon mixed spices; 1 cup walnut meats, broken; 3½ cups flour

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 ↓

Railroad Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

In a large bowl, combine the raisins, suet, molasses, milk, baking soda, egg, mixed spices, walnut meats, and flour, and mix until well combined.

Steam

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for three and a half 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).
Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Suet: Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender during steaming.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, depth of flavour and moisture to the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Egg: Binds the ingredients together and adds structure as it sets.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, molasses, milk, egg, meat, flour):

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits about as well
Walnutthe original
Nutsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, molasses, milk, egg, meat, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.