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Dessert

Vegetable Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, grated potato, carrot, suet, brown sugar, molasses, bread crumbs, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Vegetable Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients except flour and baking powder in a large bowl.

  2. If prepared the previous day, do not add flour and baking powder until just before steaming.

  3. Steam the mixture for 4 hours.

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. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, helping the pudding rise and turn light in texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the dark colour and deep flavour.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep, strong flavour that darkens the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs liquid and adds body, giving the pudding a tender, soft crumb.

The step that matters

Adding flour and baking powder. If the batter is made the previous day, the baking powder loses its leavening power over time. Holding back the flour and baking powder until just before steaming lets the pudding rise properly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, potato, carrot, sugar, molasses, bread, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, potato, carrot, sugar, molasses, bread, flour. 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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