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Dessert

Steamed Plum Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Steamed Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped beef suet, raisins, flour, milk, molasses, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Season the mixture with nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice to taste.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam the pudding for 4 hours without uncovering the steamer.

  3. Occasionally raise the lid to add boiling water to the kettle as needed.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 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

Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it steams.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and deep sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses' acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Keeping the steamer going without uncovering it. Lifting the lid lets steam escape and the water temperature drop, which slows cooking and can leave the pudding dense or unevenly cooked. Adding boiling water through the kettle as needed keeps the heat steady over the full 4 hours.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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

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