Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine stale bread crumbs, flour, chopped beef suet, and salt.
Add the beaten eggs and milk, mixing until a smooth paste forms.
If desired, fold in your choice of fruit.
Cook
Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold.
Boil in a pot of water for 3½ 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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Beef + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,032 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Stale bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and give the pudding a light, crumbly body.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
- Milk
- Hydrates the dry ingredients to form a smooth, pliable paste.
The step that matters
Forming the smooth paste. Adding the eggs and milk gradually while mixing prevents lumps of dry flour and crumbs. An evenly hydrated batter cooks uniformly and holds together when boiled.
“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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