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Irish Black Pudding

A sweet pudding made with rose water, almonds, bread crumbs, suet, currants, spices, cream, eggs, brandy, and candied lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Irish Black Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pudding

  1. Blanch and pound the almonds to a paste with rose water.

  2. Mix in the bread crumbs, minced suet, currants, spices, cream, egg yolks, egg whites, brandy, and candied lemon peel.

  3. Sweeten the mixture with pounded loaf sugar.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the mixture in a cloth until set.

  2. Once cooled, cut into thick slices.

  3. Heat in a Dutch oven or broil on a grill before serving.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body so it holds together when set.
Fresh suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help bind the mixture as it sets.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the pudding.
Sweet almonds
Contribute body, flavour and fat, mellowed by the rose water paste.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture in a cloth until set. Too vigorous a boil or too short a cook can leave the egg-thickened mixture loose or split, while overcooking makes it dry and crumbly. Gentle, steady heat lets the eggs set evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rose, almond, bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rose, almond, bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, cream. 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.

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