Name: Suet Pudding Quickly Made
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 6 ounces suet, chopped; 1 pound all-purpose flour; ⅓ pound raisins; ⅓ pound currants; 1 ounce candied lemon peel or citron, chopped; 2 ounces sugar; ½ teaspoon ground allspice; water, as needed

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 ↓

Suet Pudding Quickly Made

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, combine the eggs, suet, flour, raisins, currants, lemon peel, sugar, and allspice.
Add enough water to make a stiff batter.

Steam

Place the mixture in a steamer or a cloth bag.
Steam or boil for 1.5 hours until cooked through.

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).
Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,083 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,359 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,475 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets during steaming.
Suet: Adds richness and a moist, tender texture to the pudding.
All-purpose flour: Forms the body of the batter, giving the pudding its structure.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Currants: Add small pockets of sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly at the edges.

The step that matters

Add enough water to make a stiff batter. A batter that is too wet will turn out loose and soggy after steaming, while one that is too dry will be crumbly. The stiff consistency gives the pudding a firm, sliceable body once the flour sets with heat.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, raisin, lemon, sugar, allspice):

Orangefits better
Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, raisin, lemon, sugar, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

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Suet Pudding Quickly Made