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Dessert

Sultana Raisin Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sultana raisins, sugar, butter, egg whites, milk, flour, baking powder, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sultana Raisin Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the egg whites one at a time.

  3. Mix the baking powder with the flour and add it in small portions.

  4. Then add the milk, brandy, vanilla, and dusted raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for two hours.

  2. Serve with wine sauce or any other sauce you prefer.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg whites
Provide structure and lift, helping the pudding set into a light, tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas as the batter heats, helping the pudding rise and stay light.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, traps air for a lighter batter.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the flour in small portions. Adding flour gradually and folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites and butter mixture, so the batter does not deflate and the pudding stays light.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Apricotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, brandy. 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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