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 ↓
Troy Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine suet or pork, milk, flour, molasses, raisins, baking soda, and spices until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold or heatproof dish.
Cook and serve
Boil for 3 hours in a pot of water.
Serve warm.
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 + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pork + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,386 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and a moist, rich texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses and acids to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
- Suet or pork
- Adds fat that enriches the pudding and keeps it moist as it cooks.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and binds the mixture into a spoonable batter.
The step that matters
Boil for 3 hours in a pot of water. The pudding must cook long and gently in water so the starch sets and the batter cooks through evenly. Too little water or too fast a boil can leave the pudding dry, dense or unevenly cooked.
“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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