Name: College Puddings
Ingredients: ½ pound fine bread crumbs; 1 cup milk; 6 ounces chopped beef suet; 6 ounces white sugar; 6 ounces currants; 3 eggs; ¼ teaspoon mixed spice; grated lemon peel to taste; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon sherry or raisin wine

Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Currant + sherrytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together393 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine bread crumbs: Form the main body of the pudding and absorb the milk and eggs to set into a soft structure.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set firmly when baked.
Milk: Moistens the bread crumbs so the mixture softens and holds together.
Chopped beef suet: Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding tender and moist.
White sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the savory richness of the suet.
Currants: Add pockets of concentrated, chewy sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites just before baking. Egg whites trap air that deflates if the batter waits, so folding them in last keeps the pudding light rather than dense.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, beef, sugar, egg, lemon, sherry):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Orangefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, beef, sugar, egg, lemon, sherry. 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.

College Puddings