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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, flour, suet, sour milk, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs and add the sugar.

  2. Stir in the finely chopped suet and then the molasses.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Finally, add the flour and spices, mixing well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a buttered mold and steam for three 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.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 they set during steaming.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it steams.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep sweet, slightly bitter flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas that lightens the pudding.
Flour
Forms the main structure that sets the pudding as it cooks.
Sour milk
Provides acidity to activate the baking soda and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce gas. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before adding it to the batter spreads the reaction evenly, so the pudding rises without pockets or bitter patches.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, flour, sugar, clove, cinnamon, milk, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, flour, sugar, clove, cinnamon, milk, egg. 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.

More suet pudding recipes

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