Skip to main content
Dessert

Suet Pudding, Bqiled or Steamed

A suet pudding made with suet, molasses, milk, raisins or currants, flour, salt, baking powder or soda, and spices, boiled or steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Suet Pudding, Bqiled or Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the suet, molasses, milk, raisins or currants, flour, salt, and baking powder or baking soda.

  2. Add the mixed spices and stir until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for four hours.

  2. Serve with wine 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, rich flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together.
Baking powder or baking soda
Produces gas bubbles that lighten the pudding as it cooks.
Raisins or currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Keeping the mold covered while it boils. The pudding is cooked by steam and boiling water over four hours, so the mold must be sealed and the water kept topped up. If steam escapes or the water boils dry, the pudding can dry out or cook unevenly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, raisin, 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

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

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes