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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed suet pudding made with apples, raisins, breadcrumbs, sugar, spices, brandy, sherry, molasses, and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the apples and suet very fine.

  2. Moisten the bread crumbs with the sherry wine.

  3. Beat the sugar with the eggs.

Make the batter

  1. Divide the baking soda: add half of the baking soda to the molasses.

  2. Add the other half of the baking soda to the buttermilk.

  3. Combine all ingredients, adding the spices and brandy.

  4. Turn the mixture into a buttered pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for four hours.

  2. Serve with a hard sauce as a Christmas pudding.

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. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  4. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

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

  5. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, and keeps the pudding tender as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and give the pudding structure as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and buttermilk to release gas, helping the pudding rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark, rich colour and flavour.
Bread crumbs
Add body and soak up the sherry, giving a moist, soft crumb.
Buttermilk
Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and keeps the crumb tender.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the molasses and buttermilk. Baking soda releases carbon dioxide only when it meets an acid. Splitting it between the molasses and buttermilk and then combining everything promptly keeps the gas bubbles in the batter, so the pudding rises rather than going flat.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, bread, sugar, beef, brandy, sherry, wine):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Grapefits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, bread, sugar, beef, brandy, sherry, wine. 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.

More suet pudding recipes

Lemon 28Boiled 19Steamed 12Potato 11Apple 10Raisin 10 See all 649 →

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