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Dessert

Economy Steamed Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated potatoes, carrots, suet, currants, raisins, brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Economy Steamed Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, mix the grated potatoes, grated carrots, chopped suet, currants, raisins, brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and spices until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a steamer and cook 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the dense pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses flavour that deepens the pudding's colour.
Grated potatoes
Add moisture and body, giving the pudding a soft, tender crumb.
Grated carrots
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming for 3 hours. Steam must be kept steady and the pot must not boil dry, because uneven or insufficient heat leaves the centre under-set and wet. Long, gentle steaming cooks the dense batter through without drying the outside.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, carrot, raisin, sugar, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, carrot, raisin, sugar, 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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