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
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the raisins, currants, and candied lemon until well combined.
Add the suet and brown sugar, then stir in the sweet milk until smooth.
Boil
Transfer the mixture into a floured bag that has been dipped in boiling water.
Boil the pudding for 3 hours, ensuring the water remains boiling throughout.
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Suet
- Adds richness and a moist, tender texture to the pudding.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the pudding's dark colour and flavour.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lightens the batter so the pudding rises and is less dense.
- Raisins
- Add chewy sweetness and concentrated fruit flavour throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Keep the water boiling for the full 3 hours. If the water drops below a boil, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy and soggy. Steady heat cooks the pudding through and sets its texture.
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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