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Dessert

Suet Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine chopped suet, molasses, and sweet milk.

  2. Add sifted flour, stoned raisins, and a few whole raisins.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in a little boiling water and add to the mixture.

  4. Stir in ground cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for at least 3 hours until fully cooked.

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. Flour + raisintop 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep, rich flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for at least 3 hours until fully cooked. Steaming gently and for a long time cooks the flour and sets the batter through without drying it out. Cutting the steaming short can leave the centre dense and gummy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, flour, raisin, 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, flour, raisin, 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

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