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 ↓
Aunt Ellie's Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Mix
In a large bowl, combine the suet, raisins, currants, molasses, and flour. Mix until well combined.
Boil
Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold or a heatproof bowl. Cover tightly with a cloth or lid.
Boil in a pot of water for 3 hours.
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Currant + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,817 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender as it cooks.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep dark color and flavor.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
- Currants
- Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Cover tightly before boiling. A tight cover traps steam around the pudding during the long boil, so it cooks gently and stays moist instead of drying out at the surface.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, molasses, flour):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Datesfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, molasses, flour. 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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