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 ↓
Apple and Brown-bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grease the molds with butter.
Make the batter
Mix the brown bread crumbs and chopped apples in a bowl.
Add the chopped suet, raisins, egg, flour, salt, and milk, then mix the mixture well.
Pour the mixture into the molds.
Cook and serve
Boil the filled molds in a pot for about 2 hours.
Serve with lemon-flavored sauce.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brown bread crumbs
- Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
- Suet
- Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a moist, tender texture.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set as it cooks.
- Flour
- Helps thicken the mixture and give it structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the crumbs soften into a cohesive batter.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of concentrated fruit flavour.
The step that matters
Boil the filled molds gently and fully. Steam from boiling water cooks the pudding evenly through its centre. If the water stops boiling or the molds are under-filled or left unsealed, the pudding can cook unevenly or take on water and turn soggy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, apple, raisin, egg, flour, milk, butter):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, apple, raisin, egg, flour, milk, butter. 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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