Skip to main content
Dessert

Suet Steam Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, raisins, molasses, milk, salt, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Suet Steam Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped suet, raisins, molasses, milk, salt, baking soda, and flour.

  2. Mix until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mold with a lid or foil.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. Serve warm, and feel free to substitute raisins with other fruits.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding as it steams and sets.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and milk to lighten the pudding as it rises.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the pudding.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Covering the mold before steaming. A tight lid or foil seal traps steam so the pudding cooks evenly and stays moist. A loose cover lets steam escape, which can leave the top dry and the pudding underdone.

“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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes