Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Suet Puddings and Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the shredded suet and flour together in a bowl.
Add the salt and enough cold water to form a stiff batter, but not too stiff to roll out.
If using eggs, beat them well and mix in with the other ingredients.
Boil
Boil in a basin for 3 hours or in a floured cloth for 2.5 hours, allowing room for the pudding to swell.
For dumplings, use ¼ pound of suet, ½ to ¾ pound of flour, and 1 egg, mixing with a little salt and enough water to form a dough.
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.
-
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 tender as it cooks.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the pudding as the batter sets with heat.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add richness and some structure to the pudding.
The step that matters
Allowing room for the pudding to swell. Flour-based puddings expand as they cook and steam. If the basin or cloth is packed too tightly, the pudding can burst or cook unevenly.
Swap the nutmeg
The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg):
- Jalapenofits better
- Capersfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Turmericfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against 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
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.