Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the baking soda with the molasses.
Add the sweet milk, sifted flour, chopped suet, and salt to the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.
Steam and serve
Steam or boil for 3 hours.
Serve hot with 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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk and flour 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
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during long cooking.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms a cohesive mixture.
- Raisins or currants
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Steam or boil for 3 hours. Long, steady, moist heat cooks the thick batter through and sets its starch and structure. Heat that is too brief or too weak leaves the pudding dense and gummy in the center.
“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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