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Boiled Suet Pudding

A boiled pudding made with Indian meal, flour, molasses, suet, baking soda, salt, ginger, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boiled Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the Indian meal, flour, molasses, chopped suet, baking soda, salt, and ginger.

  2. Stir in the sour milk until well combined.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or a greased mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil or steam for three hours.

  2. Serve warm, ideally with roast beef.

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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ginger + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Flour and milk 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

Indian meal
Provides the bulk and coarse, sturdy texture of the pudding.
Flour
Adds structure so the pudding holds together when cooked.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to lighten the pudding as it cooks.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Boil or steam for three hours. The pudding needs a steady, gentle heat for the full time so the suet melts and the meal sets evenly. Too little heat or time leaves it dense and wet in the center.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, 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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