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Dessert

Small Cheap Plum Pudding

A steamed suet pudding made with raisins, currants, molasses, milk, flour, egg, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves.

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

Small Cheap Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine suet, raisins, currants, molasses, milk, flour, egg, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves, and mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  3. Steam or boil for 3 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. Raisin + flourtop 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long cooking.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a moist, deep flavor.
Egg
Binds the ingredients and helps the pudding set firm.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Steam or boil for 3 hours. The pudding needs a steady, gentle simmer or steam for the full time so the centre cooks through and sets. Letting the water boil dry or drop too low leaves the pudding dense or undercooked.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

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