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 ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine molasses, sweet milk, suet, raisins, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and add it to the mixture.
Gradually add flour until the batter reaches the consistency of pound cake.
Boil and serve
Transfer the mixture into a pudding bag and boil for four hours.
Serve with liquid wine sauce.
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.
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Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Molasses
- Adds dark sweetness and a rich, moist body to the pudding.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that gives the pudding its cake-like consistency.
The step that matters
Adding the flour gradually. Flour added all at once can form lumps and overwork the batter, so it should be incorporated slowly until the batter reaches the thickness of pound cake. Too much flour makes the pudding dense and dry.
“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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