Name: Raisin Puff
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 egg; 1 cup milk; 2 cups flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup raisins, seeded and chopped

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raisin Puff

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Beat in the egg and then add the milk.
In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of flour with the baking powder.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients until well mixed.

Cook and serve

Fold in the raisins with the remaining cup of flour.
Steam the mixture for 1 hour.
Serve with plain sauce.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds fat that makes the batter tender and rich.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.
Flour: Provides the main structure of the puff as it cooks.
Baking powder: Releases gas that lifts the batter so the pudding rises light.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the pudding.