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Troy Puddings

A thick molasses and raisin pudding cooked for four hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Troy Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine milk, molasses, suet (or butter), raisins, and baking soda.

  2. Add flour gradually until you achieve a thick batter.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for four hours.

  2. Serve with sauce.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Molasses
Provides dark sweetness and moisture, and gives the pudding its characteristic flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the thick batter together as it cooks.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender; butter can replace it.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Add flour gradually until a thick batter forms. Adding flour too quickly can leave lumps or a batter that is too loose or too stiff. Adding it slowly lets you judge the thickness so the pudding sets properly during the long boil.

“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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