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Dessert

Suet Indian Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sour milk, cornmeal, suet, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Suet Indian Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine sour milk, molasses, and salt.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and add to the mixture.

  3. Stir in cornmeal and then add chopped suet.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a steamer and steam for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with a sweet sauce.

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. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Molasses + appletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together970 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour milk
Provides acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lift the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, helping the pudding rise.
Cornmeal
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it sets during steaming.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, dark flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed in promptly so it reacts evenly with the sour milk; undissolved pockets cause uneven rising and bitter spots.

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses. 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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