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Dessert

Very Good Raisin Puddings

A thick pudding made with bread crumbs, suet, raisins, candied peel, eggs, milk, and spices, boiled for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 26 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Very Good Raisin Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine flour, bread crumbs, suet, raisins, candied peel, nutmeg, eggs, salt, ginger, and milk (or more as needed) into a thick batter.

  2. Pour the mixture into a well-floured cloth of close texture that has been dipped in hot water, wrung, and shaken out.

  3. Boil the pudding in plenty of water for four hours and a half.

  4. Serve with very sweet wine or punch sauce.

  5. Combine flour, bread crumbs, suet, raisins, candied peel, nutmeg, eggs, salt, ginger; boil for 4-1/2 hours.

  6. Combine bread crumbs, flour, suet, raisins, salt, nutmeg, ginger, mace, sugar, candied citron or orange rind, eggs, milk or brandy; mix and boil for 4 hours.

  7. Butter a plain mould or basin, line with slices of cold plum or raisin pudding, fill with custard, cover with paper and cloth, tie, boil gently for an hour, let stand 10 minutes before turning out.

  8. Butter a mould or basin holding 1-1/2 pint, line with thin slices of plum-pudding; boil 3/4 pint new milk with salt, almonds, sugar, lemon rind, mix with eggs; pour into mould while warm; boil gently for 1 hour.

  9. Combine apples, currants, suet, raisins, sugar, bread crumbs, grated rind, lemon juice, eggs, brandy; boil for 2 hours; sift sugar over when served; serve with wine or punch sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

777Calories
29 gProtein
16 gFat
129 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Brandynot 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 Eliza Acton. 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 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

Flour
Gives the batter body so the pudding holds its shape while boiling.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pudding as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and add a light, soft body to the batter.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Milk
Loosens the batter and keeps the pudding moist during boiling.

The step that matters

Floured cloth. The cloth must be well floured so the pudding does not stick to it. The flour and hot cloth help form a skin that holds the pudding's shape while it boils.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, beef, raisin, milk, flour, nutmeg, almond):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, beef, raisin, milk, flour, nutmeg, almond. 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.

More raisin pudding recipes

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