Name: Cracker Pudding
Ingredients: 1 quart dish of common crackers; 1 layer of raisins; 3 eggs; ½ pint milk; vanilla to flavor; sugar (optional); sauce (optional)

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cracker Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Assemble

Layer common crackers in a quart dish.
Add a layer of raisins on top of the crackers.
Repeat layers until the dish is full.

Make the custard

Beat the eggs in a bowl.
Add milk and vanilla to the beaten eggs and mix well.
Pour the egg mixture over the layered pudding.

Bake and serve

Cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.
Optionally, add sugar or serve with 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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together782 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Common crackers: Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the egg and milk mixture.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and set into a custard as it bakes.
Milk: Provides moisture and softens the crackers while forming the custard.
Raisins: Add pockets of chewy sweetness distributed through the layers.