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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, molasses, sour milk, raisins, currants, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine suet, molasses, sour milk, raisins, currants, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda.

  2. Add flour gradually until the mixture is thick.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for three hours.

  3. Serve with sauce.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
New orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and deep flavor to the pudding.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the pudding rise and soften.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Flour should be added gradually until the mixture is thick. Too little flour leaves a loose batter that may not hold its shape, while too much makes the pudding dense and heavy after steaming.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, raisin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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 suet pudding recipes

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