Why it works: Apple and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,918 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Fruit Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, mix the chopped suet and flour.
Add water and salt to form a dough.
Knead the dough until smooth, then roll it out.
Fill and wrap
Place your chosen fruit in the center of the dough.
Gather the edges of the dough over the fruit and tie it securely in a cloth or place it in a basin.
Cook
Boil the pudding in water until cooked through.
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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Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Beef + appletop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + appletop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,140 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,077 recipes
Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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 keeps the dough tender and moist as it cooks.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together around the fruit.
- Fruit
- Supplies the sweetness, acidity and aroma that fill the pudding.
The step that matters
Securing the cloth or basin. If the wrapping is not sealed tightly, water can seep into the pudding and make the dough soggy, while a loose wrap can let the pudding swell and burst open during boiling.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, apple):
- Raisinfits better
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, apple. 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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