Why it works: Carrot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,105 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare and steam
Combine grated carrots, grated potato, flour, sugar, raisins, currants, suet, citron, orange and lemon peel, soda, and salt.
Chop carrots, potatoes, currants, peel and half raisins.
Steam about five hours.
Serve
Serve with lemon sauce.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
-
Carrot + potatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,105 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
-
Raisin + curranttop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
-
Flour + raisintop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,071 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + raisintop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,480 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Carrot + flourtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together7,736 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carrots
- Provide moisture and sweetness, giving the pudding its body and characteristic flavor.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Suet
- Adds fat that enriches texture and keeps the pudding moist.
- Soda
- Reacts with acidic ingredients to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist and tender.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Steam about five hours. A long, gentle steam cooks the dense batter through evenly without drying it out. Keeping the water level topped up and the heat steady matters, because uneven or too-high heat can leave the centre undercooked or the outside tough.
Flavor stand-ins for the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, potato, flour, sugar, raisin):
- Orangebetter flavor fit
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Vanillabetter flavor fit
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, potato, flour, sugar, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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.
More carrot pudding recipes
You might also like
Illustration
Illustration
Illustration
IllustrationThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.