Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Red Currant and Raspberry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pick and wash the red currants.
Remove the stalks from the raspberries.
Make the pudding
Make a pudding paste as directed in the recipe for Boiled Puddings.
Line a pudding basin with the paste.
Fill the basin with the mixed fruit and sugar.
Cover with more paste and pinch the edges together neatly.
Tie the pudding in a floured cloth and plunge it into boiling water.
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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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red currants
- Provide tart, acidic flavour that balances the sugar and the fruit's juices.
- Raspberries
- Add aroma and sweet-tart fruit flavour to the filling.
- Moist sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and draws out juice, adding moisture to the filling.
The step that matters
Pinching the edges of the paste closed. A loose seal lets fruit juice escape and water seep in during boiling, so the filling turns soggy and the pudding can lose its shape. Pinch the top and bottom layers firmly together before tying.
“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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