Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Apple and Brown-bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, mix the brown bread crumbs and chopped apples.
Add the finely chopped suet, raisins, egg, flour, salt, and milk. Mix well.
Grease molds with butter and pour the mixture into them.
Cook and serve
Boil in a pot for about 2 hours.
Serve with a sauce flavored with lemon.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brown bread crumbs
- Form the bulk of the pudding and absorb moisture as the mixture cooks.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture so it holds together when cooked and sliced.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture slightly and helps it hold its shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that softens the crumbs and loosens the batter.
- Chopped apples
- Add moisture, tartness, and fruity flavor to the pudding.
The step that matters
Boil in a pot for about 2 hours. Steaming or boiling gently over a long period cooks the egg and starch evenly through the pudding. Water that boils too hard can crack the molds or let water seep in, making the texture watery.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, apple, raisin, egg, flour, milk, butter):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, apple, raisin, egg, flour, milk, butter. 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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