Name: Half-pay Pudding
Ingredients: 2 oz. suet; ½ lb. currants; 6 oz. sultanas; 6 oz. flour; 6 oz. bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 3 tablespoons treacle; 1 pint milk

Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Half-pay Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

Mix the dry ingredients: suet, currants, sultanas, flour, bread crumbs, and baking powder.
Dissolve the treacle in the milk.

Cook the pudding

Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Boil the mixture 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.

Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,398 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,383 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour: Forms the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and give the pudding a light, moist body.
Baking powder: Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes lighter.
Treacle: Adds sweetness, dark flavor and moisture to the pudding.
Milk: Provides the liquid that hydrates the dry ingredients into a batter.