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Dessert

Sweet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, bread, flour, molasses, spices, baking soda, eggs, figs, and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Combine the raisins, currants, suet, grated bread, flour, black molasses, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and the baking soda mixture in a large bowl.

  2. Add the eggs and chopped figs, mixing well.

Boil and serve

  1. Wring a cloth sack through warm water, then flour it well.

  2. Place the batter into the sack, tie it securely, leaving room for the batter to swell.

  3. Steam the pudding for 5 to 6 hours.

  4. Serve with sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and set to the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and leavens the batter so it rises and lightens.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Black molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich, moist texture.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and adds body to the batter.

The step that matters

Leaving room in the sack. The batter swells as it cooks and needs space to expand. If the sack is tied too tightly, the pudding can be squeezed and become dense or burst the cloth.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, bread, flour, molasses, nutmeg, clove, allspice):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, flour, molasses, nutmeg, clove, allspice. 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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