Name: Whole Wheat Fig Pudding
Ingredients: 1½ cups grated whole wheat bread crumbs; ½ cup butter; ½ cup sugar; 1 cup chopped figs; 1 egg, beaten; ½ cup milk

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole Wheat Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the butter into the bread crumbs.
Add the sugar, chopped figs, beaten egg, and milk.
Mix well and steam for three 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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Wheat + figtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together70 recipes

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

Whole wheat bread crumbs: Form the bulk of the pudding and absorb the butter, milk and egg to hold its structure.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, coating the crumbs so the pudding stays tender.
Egg: Binds the mixture together so it sets firm once steamed.
Figs: Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding a softer, more tender crumb.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, bread, butter, sugar, egg, milk):

Vanillafits better
Figthe original
Coconutfits less well
Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, bread, butter, sugar, egg, milk. 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.