Why it works: Carrot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
Carrot Pudding
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 batter
In a large bowl, combine grated carrots, grated potatoes, bread crumbs, currants, suet, sugar, flour, and salt.
Add enough milk to create a thick batter.
Cook
Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold.
Boil in a pot of water for about 2 hours, similar to how you would cook plum pudding.
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.
-
Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
-
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,029 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grated carrots
- Add moisture and gentle sweetness, keeping the pudding tender as it steams.
- Grated potatoes
- Add moisture and starch that helps the pudding hold together and turn dense.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and help bind the batter into a cohesive mass.
- Suet
- Adds fat that makes the pudding rich and moist rather than dry.
- Flour
- Provides starch that sets during cooking to give the pudding its structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the savory-leaning vegetables.
The step that matters
Boil in a pot of water for about 2 hours. The pudding must stay fully submerged in water at a steady simmer so it cooks evenly through. A hard boil can break the cloth or mold, and a drop in temperature slows the starch setting, leaving the center heavy and wet.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, potato, bread, sugar, flour, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, potato, bread, sugar, flour, milk. 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 carrot pudding recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Potato Croquettes255 recipes
Carrot Soup134 recipes
White Bread80 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.