Name: Fig Pudding
Ingredients: ½ pound figs, chopped fine; 6 ounces bread crumbs; 6 ounces beef suet, minced; 6 ounces brown sugar; 2 eggs, well beaten

Why it works: Fig and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 374 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

In a bowl, combine figs, bread crumbs, minced suet, brown sugar, and beaten eggs.
Mix well and tie the mixture tightly in a cloth.

Cook

Boil the pudding in water for 4 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.

Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Fig + beeftop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).