Name: Pig Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup chopped suet; 1 cup milk; 3 ¼ cups flour; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; 1 pint figs, chopped

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 ↓

Pig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Mix molasses, suet, spices, and chopped figs in a large bowl.
Dissolve baking soda in 1 tablespoon hot water and mix with the milk; add to the other ingredients.
Beat the eggs until light, then add them along with the flour and mix thoroughly.

Steam

Pour the mixture into one large mold or two small molds.
Steam for 5 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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together614 recipes

Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
Nutmeg + figtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together510 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark, rich flavor to the pudding.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during long steaming.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Figs: Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.

Swap the fig

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figthe original
Blueberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, 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.