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Dessert

Carrot Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated carrots, potatoes, bread crumbs, currants, suet, sugar, flour, salt, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

Make the pudding

  1. Combine grated carrots, grated potatoes, bread crumbs, currants, suet, sugar, flour, salt, and enough milk to moisten. Mix well until combined.

  2. Boil the mixture in a cloth or pudding mold like plum pudding.

Cook

  1. Cook until firm and cooked through.

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

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Flour
Provides structure so the pudding sets firm rather than loose.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs moisture and helps bind the mixture together.
Grated potatoes
Adds starch and body, helping the pudding hold its shape.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the savory vegetables.

The step that matters

Cook until firm and cooked through. Boiling gently and for long enough lets the starches in the flour and potatoes set and the suet melt into the mixture. Undercooked pudding stays soft and crumbly, so judge doneness by firmness rather than time alone.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, potato, bread, sugar, flour, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. 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.

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