Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
In a large bowl, combine suet, sugar, milk, raisins, flour, baking powder, egg, salt, and spices. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Boil or steam for three hours.
Make the sauce and serve
For the sauce, mix sugar, butter, and egg in a bowl. Beat well, add 1 tablespoon of water, and heat until scalding.
Flavor the sauce with claret before serving.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk and flour 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 richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it steams.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown slightly and keep moist.
The step that matters
Boil or steam for three hours. Gentle, steady heat cooks the batter through without drying it. If the water boils away or the mold is not sealed, the pudding can turn dense or dry.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, egg. 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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