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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, suet, milk, raisins, flour, spices, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, chopped suet, sweet milk, and raisins.

  2. In another bowl, mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.

  3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased mold.

  2. Steam the pudding for 2 hours.

  3. Serve hot with a liquid sauce flavored with nutmeg.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and the characteristic deep color and flavor of the pudding.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Raisins
Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding dry ingredients slowly and stirring until just combined keeps the batter smooth and evenly mixed. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the steamed pudding dense and tough.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, beef, milk, raisin, flour, cinnamon, allspice. 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.

More suet pudding recipes

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