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 ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Sift the flour and mix in the baking powder and salt thoroughly.
Add the raisins, currants, and candied lemon, mixing well to prevent sinking.
Incorporate the suet and brown sugar, then stir in the sweet milk.
Boil and serve
Transfer the mixture into a bag dipped in boiling water and boil for three hours.
Ensure the water remains boiling by replenishing with hot water as needed.
Once done, place on a large platter, remove the strings, and gently pull the bag off.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes lighter.
- Suet
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it cooks.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like flavour to the pudding.
- Raisins
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Keep the water boiling. Steaming in a bag needs steady, vigorous boiling for the full three hours. If the water drops in temperature, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy and dense. Adding hot water keeps the heat constant.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, coffee, raisin, lemon, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, coffee, raisin, lemon, sugar, 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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