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 ↓
Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, mix together molasses, sweet milk, melted butter, raisins, currants, flour, and baking soda until well combined.
Add salt and spice to taste.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam the pudding for 2 hours.
Serve warm.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Molasses
- Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a deep, rich flavor to the pudding.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer mouthfeel.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.
- Currants
- Add small bursts of tart fruit flavor and chewy texture.
The step that matters
Steam the pudding for 2 hours. Steaming must stay gently and steadily hot so the batter cooks through evenly. Heat that drops too low can leave the centre dense and gummy, while a rapid boil can make the mold leak or the pudding cook unevenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, butter, raisin, flour):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, butter, raisin, flour. 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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