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 ↓
Cup Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Mix the flour, ground rice, suet, milk, raisins, baking soda, ground ginger (if using), and vinegar in a bowl until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.
Boil for 4 hours.
Serve
Serve with sweet sauce or enjoy plain.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + gingertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,196 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,242 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together565 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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.
- Ground rice
- Adds a dense, slightly grainy texture to the pudding.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long cooking.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the vinegar to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
- Vinegar
- Acidifies the batter so that the baking soda can react and make it rise.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Boil for 4 hours. The pudding must be kept at a steady boil for the full time, because the long cooking sets the batter and cooks the flour and rice through. Letting the water drop too low can leave the center dense and undercooked.
Swap the ginger
The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, rice, milk, raisin, vinegar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, rice, milk, raisin, vinegar. 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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