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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, molasses, milk, raisins, flour, egg, spices, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine suet, molasses, milk, raisins, flour, egg, cloves, cinnamon, grated nutmeg, salt, and baking soda. Mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding for 3 hours without uncovering the steamer.

  2. Check occasionally to add boiling water to the kettle.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it sets.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender crumb as it melts during steaming.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Egg
Binds the ingredients and helps the pudding set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter.

The step that matters

Keep the steamer covered and topped up with boiling water. Lifting the lid lets steam escape and the temperature drop, so the pudding cooks unevenly and may turn heavy. Adding cold water can also stall the steam. Keeping the steam constant gives the pudding an even, moist set over the full steaming time.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, raisin, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, raisin, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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 suet pudding recipes

Lemon 28Boiled 19Steamed 12Potato 11Apple 10Raisin 10 See all 649 →

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