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 ↓
Tapioca Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine chopped suet, raisins, molasses, sweet milk, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add flour until a stiff batter forms.
Steam
Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 1½ 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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + molassestop 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
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the stiff batter together as it cooks.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and mild acidity to the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, helping the pudding rise.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of texture throughout the pudding.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture that loosens the batter and keeps the crumb soft.
The step that matters
Adding the flour gradually. Flour must be stirred in little by little until the batter is stiff but still mixable. Adding too much at once can leave dry pockets, while too much total flour makes the pudding dense and tough because gluten develops with mixing.
“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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