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Dessert

Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, molasses, raisins, spices, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped suet, baking soda, molasses, cinnamon, raisins, cloves, sour milk, grated nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Add flour gradually until the batter is slightly thicker than cake batter.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam the pudding for three hours.

  3. Serve with sauce of your choice.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Flour should be added slowly until the batter reaches a slightly thicker than cake consistency. Too much flour at once can make the batter stiff and dense, while too little leaves the pudding loose and heavy with moisture.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, cinnamon, raisin, milk, nutmeg, 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.

More suet pudding recipes

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