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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, raisins, almonds, molasses, and milk.

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 ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the flour.

  2. Add the suet, raisins, and chopped almonds, and mix thoroughly.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the milk with the molasses and add to the dry ingredients.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and moist during long steaming.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Milk
Moistens the dry ingredients so they form a soft, pourable batter.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming must be continuous and gentle so the pudding cooks evenly and stays moist. If the water boils dry or the steam drops, the pudding can turn dense or soggy.

“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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