Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Suet Pudding with Sour Milk
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine the chopped suet, molasses, chopped raisins, sour milk, flour, baking soda, and salt.
Mix until well combined.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 3 hours until cooked through.
Optionally, add 1 cup of chopped apples for extra flavor.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dense pudding together as it cooks.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during long steaming.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, depth of flavor, and a dark color to the pudding.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and helps tenderize the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Steaming the pudding. The mold must be steamed at a steady, gentle simmer for the full time, with water topped up as needed. Uneven or weak heat leaves the centre undercooked and dense, while the trapped steam cooks the batter evenly.
“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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