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Dessert

Hunters Pudding

A suet-based pudding with currants, raisins, lemon rind, Jamaica peppers, eggs, brandy, and milk, boiled for 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 ↓

Hunters Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a large bowl, mix the suet, flour, currants, raisins, lemon rind, Jamaica peppers, eggs, brandy, salt, and enough milk to achieve a proper consistency.

  2. Place the mixture in a floured cloth or a melon mold.

  3. Boil for 8 to 9 hours.

Store and serve

  1. Let it cool.

  2. Tie it up in a cloth and hang it in a sheet of cap-paper to keep it dust-free.

  3. When ready to use, boil for 1 hour.

  4. Serve with sweet sauce.

  5. For a change of flavor, add a spoonful of peach water.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when boiled.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor depth to the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 8 to 9 hours. The pudding must be sealed tightly in its cloth or mold and kept at a steady boil, because long gentle steaming cooks the flour and eggs through and sets the texture. If the water drops or the cloth leaks, the pudding can turn soggy or dry.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, raisin, lemon, pepper, egg, brandy, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, lemon, pepper, egg, brandy, 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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