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Dessert

Suet Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop the suet finely and mix it with the spices and salt.

  2. Warm the molasses, then add the baking soda and stir until dissolved.

  3. Pour the molasses mixture over the dry ingredients and stir quickly.

  4. Gradually add the sour milk and flour until the batter is thick but not too thick.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a tin basin or pudding mold and pour in the batter.

  2. Place the mold in a steamer over a kettle of boiling water and steam for 3 hours.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it steams.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the sour milk and flour. Adding the flour and liquid gradually and stopping at a thick but not overly stiff batter prevents lumps and dense texture. Overmixing develops gluten, which makes the pudding tough.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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

Lemon 28Boiled 19Steamed 12Potato 11Apple 10Raisin 10 See all 649 →

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