Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Baked Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Chop one pound of suet very fine, removing all skins and strings. Mix with two pounds of sifted flour, one pound each of dried currants and stoned raisins, and one ounce of preserved citron cut fine. Moisten with four eggs beaten till smooth, stirring hard all the time till a white batter.
Add a pint of milk (sufficient). Sprinkle in half a pound of sifted sugar, and beat all well together.
Bake
Pour into well buttered tin pans, and bake for three hours in a slow oven.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Currant + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender as it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, cohesive crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning on the outside of the pudding.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture so the flour hydrates and the batter stays soft.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs into a smooth batter. Beating the eggs until smooth and stirring hard as they go to form a white batter distributes the binder evenly, so the pudding sets uniformly rather than turning lumpy or separating in the tins.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, 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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