Why it works: Flour and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Add the chopped suet and mix well.
Gradually add cold water to form a soft dough.
Steam and serve
Put the mixture into a well-greased mold, filling it to within an inch of the top.
Cover with greased paper and steam for 2 hours for a mold or 1 hour for cups.
Serve with foamy sauce.
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.
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and beef barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the pudding as the dough sets during steaming.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and become light.
- Cold water
- Binds the flour and suet into a soft dough.
The step that matters
Gradually add cold water to form a soft dough. Adding water slowly lets you stop once the dough is soft but not sticky. Too much water makes the pudding heavy and dense, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly.
“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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