Name: Suet Puddings
Ingredients: 1 cup beef suet, chopped fine; ½ cup molasses; ½ cup milk; ½ cup raisins or currants (or both); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup dry bread crumbs; 1 cup graham flour; 2 eggs

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 ↓

Suet Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Mix the suet, molasses, milk, raisins or currants, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.
Add the bread crumbs and graham flour, then beat in the eggs until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Cook and serve

Steam for 3 hours or bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.
Serve with lemon sauce.

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).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,577 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet: Adds fat that melts during cooking, keeping the pudding moist and rich.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and set during cooking, giving the pudding its structure.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Graham flour: Provides the body and structure of the pudding, with a slightly nutty flavor.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the pudding.

“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.