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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, bread crumbs, sugar, milk, molasses, flour, eggs, spices, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the suet, bread crumbs, sugar, sweet milk, and Orleans molasses.

  2. Add the baking soda, flour, eggs, and spices, mixing until well combined.

  3. Fold in the raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for three hours until cooked through.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts during steaming.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together once set.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the pudding a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam must be kept steady and the mold well covered for the full three hours. Gentle, continuous heat cooks the batter through evenly, while a drop in steam can leave the center dense or undercooked.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, milk, molasses, flour, egg. 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.

More suet pudding recipes

Lemon 28Boiled 19Steamed 12Potato 11Apple 10Raisin 10 See all 649 →

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