Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Mix and fill
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold.
Boil
Boil for three hours in a pot of water.
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.
-
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,742 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up liquid and give the mixture body so it holds together.
- Milk
- Moistens the bread crumbs and helps bind the mixture.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Currants
- Add sweetness and small pockets of chewy fruit.
- Mixed spice
- Adds warm aroma that defines the pudding's flavour.
The step that matters
Boil for three hours in a pot of water. The pudding needs long, steady heat to cook through evenly. The suet melts and the crumbs set, so the mixture firms into a cohesive pudding rather than a loose, undercooked mass.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, bread, milk):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, bread, 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 plum pudding recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 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.