Name: Roly-poly Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; ½ pound finely shredded suet (or 6 ounces butter or sweet dripping); 1 good pinch coarse sea salt; 1 large egg; ½ pint milk (or ½ pint water for a plainer pudding); Optional: 1 tablespoon baking powder (if using less dripping); Jam of your choice (for filling)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Roly-poly Pudding

Ingredients

1 pound all-purpose flour
½ pound finely shredded suet (or 6 ounces butter or sweet dripping)
1 good pinch coarse sea salt
1 large egg
½ pint milk (or ½ pint water for a plainer pudding)
Optional: 1 tablespoon baking powder (if using less dripping)
Jam of your choice (for filling)

Directions

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix the flour with the suet, salt, and egg.
Gradually add the milk and mix until a dough forms.
Roll out the dough to a long, thin sheet about ¼ inch thick.

Fill and wrap

Spread a layer of jam over the dough, leaving edges clear.
Roll the dough tightly to enclose the jam, moisten edges, and seal securely.
Flour a cloth, wrap the pudding tightly, and tie it.

Boil and serve

Place a plate in a saucepan of boiling water and add the pudding.
Boil for 1.5 to 2 hours, adding boiling water 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the dough that holds the filling together.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the dough tender and moist as it cooks.
Egg: Binds the dry ingredients and adds richness to the dough.
Milk: Hydrates the flour so the mixture forms a workable dough.
Jam: Provides sweetness and fruity flavour inside the rolled pudding.

The step that matters

Sealing the roll. If the edges are not moistened and sealed firmly, the jam can leak out during boiling and the pudding may open up. A tight roll also keeps the filling in place and the shape even.

“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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Roly-poly Pudding