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Preserve

Carrot Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated carrot, grated potato, beef suet, molasses, flour, bread crumbs, raisins, currants, candied peel, spices, sweet milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Carrot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine grated carrot, grated potato, beef suet, molasses, flour, bread crumbs, raisins, currants, candied peel, and spice.

  2. In a separate bowl, dissolve baking soda in sweet milk and add to the mixture. Mix well and pour into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 2.5 hours.

  2. Serve with sweet sauce.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  3. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated carrot
Adds bulk and moisture, and a subtle sweetness to the pudding.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavour.
Flour
Provides structure so the mixture holds together when steamed.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a tender, light body.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the pudding as it cooks.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the batter through without drying it out. Letting the water boil dry or lifting the lid often can cause uneven cooking and a dense or dry texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, potato, beef, molasses, flour, bread, raisin. 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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