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Dessert

Rich Suet Pudding

A steamed suet pudding made with flour, suet, milk, molasses, sugar, raisins, citron, figs or dates, spices, baking powder, and sultanas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Rich Suet Pudding

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

  1. Warm the milk and suet together.

  2. Combine all the other ingredients in a large bowl and stir until mixed; no beating is necessary.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered tube pan.

Steam

  1. Steam for 3 hours.

Dry and serve

  1. After steaming, place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes to dry off.

  2. Serve with brandy sauce or any warm 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  4. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the dense pudding together as it steams.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark color to the pudding.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the pudding is lighter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning and flavor development.
Sweet milk
Adds liquid that hydrates the flour and keeps the batter moist.

The step that matters

Stir only until mixed. Beating the batter develops gluten in the flour, which makes the pudding tough and dense. Stirring just until combined keeps the texture tender.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, molasses, sugar, raisin, fig, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, molasses, sugar, raisin, fig, cinnamon. 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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