Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pudding Paste
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, combine the chopped suet and flour with salt.
Rub the mixture together until well combined.
Add the egg and water, mixing to form a paste.
Ensure the paste is neither too firm nor too soft.
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.
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the paste together once hydrated with egg and water.
- Suet
- Fat that is rubbed into the flour, keeping the paste tender and rich.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and adds richness and moisture to the paste.
The step that matters
Ensure the paste is neither too firm nor too soft.. Too little liquid leaves a crumbly paste that will not hold together, while too much makes it slack. Overworking the flour once wet develops gluten, which makes the finished paste tough.
“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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