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Dessert

Suet Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, mix molasses, chopped suet, sweet milk, raisins, flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding for 2 hours, ensuring the water does not boil dry.

  2. Serve hot with a sauce of your choice.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a deep caramel flavor to the pudding.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the steaming water topped up. If the water boils dry, the pudding loses steady gentle heat and can scorch or set unevenly, so the water level must be checked during the full steaming time.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, beef, milk, raisin, flour, cinnamon, allspice. 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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