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 ↓
Christmas Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine flour, suet, currants, raisins, eggs, candied peel, almonds, and spices, then mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Transfer the mixture into a pudding cloth or mold.
Boil
Boil gently in a large pot of water for 7 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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten framework that gives the pudding its body.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help set its structure as it cooks.
- Currants
- Add sweetness, moisture and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness, moisture and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Candied peel
- Adds concentrated sweetness and a citrus aroma.
The step that matters
Boil gently for 7 hours. A hard boil can jostle the pudding and break the cloth or mold, while uneven heat leaves the centre dense or underdone. A steady gentle simmer cooks it evenly and keeps its shape.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, raisin, egg, almond):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, egg, almond. 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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