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 ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sugar, suet, bread crumbs, milk, raisins, currants, and eggs.
Add flour until the mixture is stiff.
Season with spices to taste.
Boil
Tie the mixture loosely in a well-floured cloth.
Boil steadily for 4 hours.
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure as they set during cooking.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and help give the pudding a soft, moist body.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and moist as it cooks.
- Flour
- Stiffens the mixture so it holds its shape in the cloth.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to the pudding's flavor and color.
The step that matters
Tie the mixture loosely in a well-floured cloth.. The pudding needs room to swell as it cooks, so tying it loosely prevents it from bursting or becoming dense. The floured cloth forms a thin skin that helps the pudding hold its shape and release cleanly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread, milk, raisin, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, milk, raisin, egg, flour. 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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