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Dessert

Vert Good Raisin Pudding

A suet-based pudding made with flour, bread crumbs, raisins, spices, eggs, and milk, boiled for several hours.

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

Vert Good Raisin Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine flour, bread crumbs, beef suet, raisins, salt, ginger, nutmeg, and candied peel in a large bowl.

  2. Mix beaten eggs with milk until well combined, then add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients.

  3. Stir until you achieve a very thick batter.

Prepare the cloth and cook

  1. Prepare a well‑floured cloth by dipping it in hot water, wringing it out, and shaking it.

  2. Pour the batter into the cloth and tie the cloth securely.

  3. Boil the pudding in plenty of water for 4½ hours.

  4. Serve with sweet wine or punch 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the batter as it sets during boiling.
Beef suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts into the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and lighten the body of the dense batter.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth securely. If the cloth is loose or poorly floured, water can seep in and the pudding can become soggy or fall apart. A well-floured, tightly tied cloth lets the pudding hold its shape while it boils for hours.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, bread, beef, raisin, nutmeg, egg, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, bread, beef, raisin, nutmeg, egg, milk. 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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