Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Mix equal parts of suet, bread crumbs, and flour in a bowl.
Add enough milk to form a batter (do not add egg).
Cook and serve
Boil thoroughly in a pot, but do not tie it up tightly.
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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Bread + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- Suet
- Provides fat that melts during boiling, keeping the pudding rich and moist.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb milk and fat to give the pudding body and a soft, light crumb.
- Flour
- Adds starch that thickens the batter and helps it hold its shape while cooking.
- Milk
- Hydrates the dry ingredients into a batter and adds moisture as it cooks.
The step that matters
Boil thoroughly in a pot, but do not tie it up tightly.. Boiling cooks the starch in the flour and melts the suet through the batter. Leaving the cloth or cover loose lets steam escape and prevents pressure from building up as the pudding swells.
“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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