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Dessert

Steamed Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, molasses, raisins, currants, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Steamed Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, spices, and chopped suet.

  2. Add the molasses, raisins, currants, and water; stir until combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a single mold or small molds.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 3 hours in a single mold or 1 hour in small molds.

  2. Serve hot with fruit 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it sets during steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the pudding's color.
Chopped suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time without letting the water boil dry. Steaming gently and for the full time cooks the batter through and sets its structure. If the water level drops or the steam weakens, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn out dense or doughy in the center.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, cinnamon, raisin, 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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