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Dessert

Baked Suet Pudding

A baked suet pudding with raisins, currants, molasses, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Baked Suet Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the suet, flour, raisins, currants, molasses, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  2. In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the beaten egg and water to the sugar mixture and heat until scalded.

  4. Allow to cool, then combine with the dry ingredients.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and bake for one hour.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep sweetness.
Cream of tartar
Reacts with the baking soda to help the pudding rise and gives it a lighter crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Egg
Binds the ingredients and adds structure as it sets during baking.

The step that matters

Heating the egg and sugar mixture until scalded. Heating the beaten egg with the sugar and liquid thickens and cooks the egg, so it sets properly. Overheating can curdle it, and the mixture must be cooled before it is combined with the dry ingredients so the leavening is not spent too early.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, raisin, molasses, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, molasses, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream, sugar. 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

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