Name: Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound raisins; 1 pound currants; 1 pound seedless raisins; ½ pound mixed orange, lemon, and citron peels; 1 pound suet, chopped; 1 pound flour; rind of 1 lemon; cinnamon, to taste; cloves, to taste; nutmeg, to taste; ½ pound sugar; ¼ pound shelled almonds; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ⅓ cup brandy; milk, enough to make a solid mass

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the starchy structure that holds the dense pudding together as it cooks.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during long cooking.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the fruit flavors stand out.
Raisins: Add sweetness, chew, and moisture to the pudding.
Brandy: Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavor to the pudding.
Milk: Moistens the dry ingredients so they bind into a solid mass.

The step that matters

Boil for the full 4 to 5 hours. Long, steady boiling cooks the starch-thickened mass through to the center. Cutting the time short leaves the pudding wet and doughy inside, so it should be boiled for the whole stated period.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, orange, lemon, flour, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

Limefits better
Figfits better
Cranberryfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, orange, lemon, flour, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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.

Plum Pudding

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and fill

Boil