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Dessert

Hunter's Pudding

A boiled pudding of raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, flour, candied peel, brandy, lemon and almond essences, spiced with nutmeg, mace, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hunter's Pudding

10 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Stone and shred the raisins into small pieces.

  2. Chop the suet finely.

  3. Rub the bread until lumps are broken.

  4. Pound the spices to a powder.

  5. Cut the candied peel into thin shreds.

Make the batter

  1. Mix all these ingredients together, adding the sugar.

  2. Beat the eggs to a strong froth.

  3. Drop the lemon and almond essences into the eggs as they are beaten.

  4. Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients, mix well, and add the brandy.

Boil and serve

  1. Tie the pudding firmly in a cloth.

  2. Boil the pudding for at least 6 hours; 7 or 8 hours is better.

  3. Serve with boiled custard, red-currant jelly, or brandy sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

571Calories
20 gProtein
8 gFat
102 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Brandynot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs give the pudding its light, set structure and binding.
Suet (in the method)
Fat that adds richness and a moist, tender crumb during long boiling.
Flour
Starch that helps bind the mixture and gives it body.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour while contributing to the pudding's keeping quality.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding for the full time. Long, steady boiling cooks the egg-thickened mixture through evenly and gives the dense, moist texture. Cutting the boil short leaves the centre undercooked and heavy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, lemon, almond, egg, brandy, nutmeg, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, lemon, almond, egg, brandy, nutmeg, clove. 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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