Name: Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup suet, chopped fine; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 pound raisins; 1 large teaspoon baking soda; salt to taste; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 3½ cups flour

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 ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix the suet, molasses, sweet milk, raisins, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour until well combined.
Pour the batter into a pudding mold.

Cook and serve

Boil the pudding in water for 3½ hours.
Let it cool before serving.

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).
Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 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

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep, treacle-like flavour.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it cooks.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy pieces throughout the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.

“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.