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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, raisins, molasses, sour milk, flour, baking soda, 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 and dissolve the baking soda in it.

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

  4. Add the sour milk and mix well.

  5. Gradually add the flour until the batter is thick but not too thick; it should slowly hold the tack of a spoon.

Steam and serve

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

  2. Place the basin in a steamer over 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 rich as it steams.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and reacts with the baking soda.
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 and tenderness.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and chew throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour. Too much flour makes the batter stiff and dense, while too little leaves it loose and wet. Adding it gradually lets you stop at the right thickness, so the pudding rises well and holds its shape when steamed.

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

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