Name: Nut Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ¾ cup chopped suet; 1 cup sweet milk; 2½ cups flour; 1 pound chopped English walnuts; ½ pound chopped figs; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Walnut and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 373 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Nut Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Combine molasses, chopped suet, sweet milk, flour, chopped walnuts, chopped figs, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam

Steam for 2½ 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.

Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together373 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,230 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Fig + nutmegtop 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).
Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and a deep color to the pudding.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
English walnuts: Add texture and a rich, nutty flavor to the pudding.
Figs: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

Swap the walnut

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

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

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