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Dessert

Spotted Dick

A steamed suet pudding with currants and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Spotted Dick

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, suet, currants, sugar, and cinnamon.

  2. Mix in the eggs and milk until well combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold or wrap in a cloth.

  2. Boil for 1½ hours.

  3. Serve with melted butter and a sprinkle of sugar on top.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during long cooking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and combines with the eggs to form a soft, cohesive batter.
Currants
Add concentrated pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Sealing the mold or cloth. If the mold or cloth is not sealed tightly, boiling water can seep in and make the pudding soggy and waterlogged. Keeping the wrapping secure lets the pudding steam evenly and cook through to a light, cohesive texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, beef, sugar, cinnamon, egg, milk):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, beef, sugar, cinnamon, egg, 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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