Why it works: Flour and raisin 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
Beat the eggs in a large bowl.
Stir in the flour, milk, chopped suet, floured raisins, currants, and salt, and mix until well combined.
Cook and serve
Pour the mixture into a pudding cloth or mold.
Boil the pudding briskly for 4 hours.
Serve with wine 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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch that gives the pudding its body.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, cohesive batter.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Boiling the pudding. The pudding must boil steadily for the full 4 hours so heat penetrates evenly and the batter cooks through. Letting the water drop below a boil can leave the centre dense and undercooked.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, milk, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, milk, raisin. 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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