Name: Boilxd Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound good suet, cut into small pieces; 1 pound currants; 1 pound stoned raisins; 8 eggs; 1 nutmeg, grated; 1 pound flour; 1 pint milk

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Boilxd Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

In a bowl, beat the eggs well and add half of the milk.
Mix in the suet, currants, raisins, grated nutmeg, and flour.
Stir in the remaining milk until well combined.

Cook

Pour the mixture into a pudding cloth or mold.
Boil for 4 to 5 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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set firm as it cooks.
Suet: Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Milk: Moistens the batter so the flour hydrates and the mixture pours evenly.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy texture through the pudding.
Currants: Add sweetness, fruitiness and chewy texture through the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 to 5 hours. Long, steady boiling cooks the flour and eggs through and sets the batter. Too little time leaves it wet and doughy in the centre.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Lemonfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, egg, nutmeg, flour, 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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Boilxd Plum Pudding