Name: Suet Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup finely chopped suet or ½ cup melted butter; 1 cup raisins; ½ cup currants; 2½ cups flour; ½ teaspoon baking soda; Coarse sea salt to taste; Spices to taste

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 ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix together molasses, sweet milk, suet (or melted butter), raisins, currants, flour, and baking soda.
Add coarse sea salt and spices to taste.

Steam

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Cover and steam for 2 hours.

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Molasses: Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a rich, sticky color to the pudding.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender; melted butter can replace it.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Raisins: Add chewy pockets of concentrated sweetness and moisture throughout.
Sweet milk: Hydrates the flour so the batter forms and sets during steaming.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, butter, raisin, flour):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Coconutfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, butter, raisin, 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.