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 ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a large bowl, combine chopped suet, sour apples, raisins, currants, sugar, sweet milk, and citron.
Beat the eggs and mix them into the bowl with the other ingredients.
Add enough flour to make the mixture stick together.
Cook and serve
Place the mixture into a cloth bag and boil for three hours.
Serve with brandy 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.
-
Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
-
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,920 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure as they set during cooking.
- Suet
- Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
- Flour
- Absorbs moisture and gives the mixture enough body to hold together.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the sour apples.
- Sour apples
- Add acidity and moisture that brighten the rich dried fruit.
The step that matters
Boiling in a cloth bag. The cloth must be secured so the mixture can expand and hold its shape, and the water must keep simmering for the full three hours so the eggs and flour set through and the pudding cooks evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, sugar, milk, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Pearfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, sugar, milk, egg, 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.
More plum pudding recipes
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Apple Cake80 recipes
Apple Meringue75 recipes
Red Currant Jelly65 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.