Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Remove the skin from the suet and chop it very finely.
In a bowl, combine the suet, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Beat the egg and stir it into the mixture.
Work the mixture into a smooth paste.
Steam and serve
Fill small well-greased timbale or dariole molds with the paste.
Cover each mold with buttered paper and steam for 45 to 60 minutes.
Turn out the pudding and serve with honey, jam, or golden syrup.
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.
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that melts during steaming, keeping the pudding moist and rich.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and adds structure and richness to the pudding.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during steaming, helping the pudding rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly at the edges.
The step that matters
Working the mixture into a smooth paste. Overworking or uneven mixing can develop gluten and make the pudding tough, while poor blending leaves streaks of suet and uneven texture after steaming.
“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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