Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓
Plum Duff
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Prepare a yeast-raised dough and mix in raisins and currants.
Allow the dough to rise for a short time.
Divide the dough into two-pound pieces.
Boil and serve
Place each piece in a canvas bag, tie it up, and drop it into a large pot of boiling water.
Boil until cooked through.
Serve with a sweet sauce, and if desired, garnish with a sprig of holly.
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,684 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Currant + orangetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Raisin + saucetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together297 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + orangetop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together723 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yeast-raised dough
- Forms the body of the pudding and expands as it rises, giving a light, bread-like texture.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy moisture pockets throughout the dough.
- Currants
- Add small bursts of sweet, tart fruit flavor and chewiness throughout the dough.
The step that matters
Boil until cooked through. The dough is sealed in a cloth bag and cooked by boiling water alone, so it cannot brown. Keeping the water at a steady boil and cooking fully ensures the centre sets and no raw dough remains.
Swap the orange
The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, sauce):
- Figfits better
- Applefits better
- Red currantfits about as well
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, sauce. 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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