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Dessert

Fruit Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, bread crumbs, raisins, currants, citron, molasses, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped suet, bread crumbs, raisins, currants, shredded citron, molasses, and eggs, then mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Steam

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold or heatproof dish.

  2. Cover the mold with a lid or aluminum foil.

  3. Steam the pudding for 3 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. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,111 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and moist and gives it a tender texture.
Bread crumbs
Provides bulk and body, soaking up the molasses and fat to form a soft structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor, and contributes moisture.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add tart, concentrated fruit flavor and small chewy bits throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Cover the mold with a lid or aluminum foil. A tight cover traps the steam around the pudding so it cooks evenly and stays moist. A loose cover lets steam escape, which can leave the top dry and the centre underdone.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, raisin, molasses, egg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Datesfits better
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, raisin, molasses, 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.

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