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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, flour, sugar, molasses, raisins, 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 clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of hot water.

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, molasses, suet, milk, flour, egg, salt, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and dissolved baking soda until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam

  1. Steam the pudding for 2½ hours.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acid to produce gas, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the structure during steaming.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Black molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and its acidity works with the baking soda.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture while deepening the flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda fully before mixing. Baking soda needs to be evenly dispersed in the batter so it reacts uniformly with the acidic molasses. Undissolved clumps can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, milk, flour, egg, raisin, cinnamon. 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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