Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Black Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Combine suet, molasses, sweet milk, flour, fruit, and baking soda in a large bowl and mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 2 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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk and flour 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
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, sweetness and moisture to the batter.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture to the batter.
- Flour
- Provides starch and gluten that give the pudding its structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with molasses' acidity to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
The step that matters
Steaming the pudding. Steam gently and keep the water boiling steadily so the pudding cooks through evenly. Too little steam can leave the center dense or undercooked, while overly rough heat can make the outside uneven.
“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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