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Dessert

Quaker Oats Suet Pudding

A suet pudding made with Quaker oats, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Quaker Oats Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix and sift the dry ingredients together.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the suet, molasses, and milk.

  3. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a well-buttered mold.

  2. Cover the mold and place it on a trivet in a kettle of boiling water, ensuring the water does not reach the cover.

  3. Cook for three 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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to release gas, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Quaker oats
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a hearty, slightly chewy texture.

The step that matters

Keeping the water out of the mold. Water entering the mold through the cover would make the pudding soggy and dilute its texture. Keeping the cover above the waterline lets it steam gently and cook evenly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, molasses, milk, flour, oats, nutmeg):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Cuminfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, molasses, milk, flour, oats, nutmeg. 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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