Name: Real English Plum Pudding
Ingredients: ½ pound beef suet; 1 pound raisins; 1 pound currants; 2 pounds stale bread crumbs (crusts removed); 3 large eggs (weighing at least 5 ounces); 3 ounces powdered sugar; ⅓ cup brandy; 1 medium nutmeg, grated; about ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Real English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the suet finely, removing all skin, and weigh each ingredient carefully.
Wash and clean the currants thoroughly, then dry them by the fire.
The next morning, warm 1 pint of milk and soak the bread crumbs in it until fully absorbed.
Add the beaten eggs to the soaked bread, followed by the chopped suet, currants, raisins, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, and cinnamon, mixing well after each addition.

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.

Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, bread, egg, sugar, brandy, nutmeg):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Applefits about as well
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, bread, egg, sugar, brandy, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.