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Dessert

Damson Pudding

A pudding made with beef suet, flour, water, damsons, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Damson Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crust

  1. Rub the shredded beef suet into the flour until well combined.

  2. Add enough water to form a smooth, firm paste.

  3. Line a well-buttered basin with the paste.

  4. Cut a cover for the top.

Fill and boil

  1. Fill the basin with damsons.

  2. Sweeten to taste.

  3. Tie a floured cloth firmly over the top.

  4. Boil steadily for 2.5 to 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. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the crust rich and tender as it steams.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the paste together around the filling.
Damsons
Provide the fruit filling, releasing juice that softens the pudding as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart damsons and balances their acidity.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth firmly. A loose cloth lets water seep into the basin and soak the crust, and steam can escape or push the lid off. A firm, floured seal keeps the pudding dense and moist during the long boil.

“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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