Name: Simple Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 2 heaped cups self-raising flour; 1 cup chopped suet; 1 cup raisins, stoned and cleaned; 1 cup prunes, chopped and stoned; a little finely cut candied peel; 1 beaten egg; milk, enough to mix to a very stiff dough

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 ↓

Simple Plum Pudding

Ingredients

2 heaped cups self-raising flour
1 cup chopped suet
1 cup raisins, stoned and cleaned
1 cup prunes, chopped and stoned
a little finely cut candied peel
1 beaten egg
milk, enough to mix to a very stiff dough

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, suet, raisins, prunes, and candied peel.
Add the beaten egg and enough milk to form a very stiff dough.
Transfer the mixture into a well-buttered bag.
Cook in boiling water for about 50 minutes.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,155 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

More plum pudding recipes

English 165 Christmas 156 Sauce 71 Eggless 34 Baked 33 Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes

Spice Cake344 recipes

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Simple Plum Pudding