Name: Old English Christmas Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound raisins, well-stoned; 1 pound currants, thoroughly washed; 1 pound suet, finely chopped; ¼ pound flour or finely crumbled bread; 3 ounces sugar; 1½ ounces grated lemon peel; 1 blade of mace; ½ small nutmeg, grated; 6 eggs, well beaten

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 ↓

Old English Christmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

In a large bowl, combine the raisins, currants, and chopped suet.
Add the flour (or crumbled bread), sugar, grated lemon peel, mace, nutmeg, and beaten eggs.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Boil the pudding

Place the mixture into a cloth, tie it securely, leaving room for expansion.
Boil the pudding in water for at least 5 hours, ensuring it continues to boil.

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).
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and help give the pudding its set structure.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Flour or bread: Absorbs moisture and gives the pudding body so it holds its shape.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the dried fruit taste rounded.
Raisins: Provide chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling for the full cooking time. Steady boiling cooks the pudding evenly through the dense batter. If the water drops below a boil, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy and soggy. Leave room in the cloth for the pudding to expand as it heats.

Swap the mace

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

Cinnamonfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, flour, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg. 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.

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

Red Currant Jelly65 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Old English Christmas Plum Pudding