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Dessert

Devonshire White Puddings

A steamed pudding made with pork fat, currants, bread, clotted cream, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Devonshire White Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the shredded pork fat, cleaned currants, grated bread, clotted cream, and sugar. Mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for about 2 hours until set.

  2. Let cool slightly before serving.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Pork + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Currant + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Pork fat
Provides richness and a tender, moist texture as it melts during cooking.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding body so it holds its shape when set.
Clotted cream
Adds fat and richness, contributing moisture and a smooth texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the fat and cream.
Currants
Add chewy bursts of fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam until set. Steaming gently sets the egg-free mixture through moist heat; cooking too fast or too long can make it dry or crumbly, while stopping too early leaves it loose.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, bread, cream, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, bread, 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.

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