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Dessert

Pudding a LA Scoones

A steamed pudding made with apples, currants, suet, raisins, sugar, breadcrumbs, lemon, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,057 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the apples, currants, suet, sultana raisins, sugar, bread crumbs, lemon rind, lemon juice, eggs, and brandy until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a buttered basin.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pudding for 2 hours.

  2. Sift sugar over the pudding when serving.

  3. Serve with wine or punch sauce on the side.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Currant + brandytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Currant + raisintop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Apple + brandytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Apple + curranttop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the pudding set as it cooks.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding body and a soft crumb.
Apples
Add moisture and a fresh fruit flavour that lightens the richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the lemon and fruit.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, currant, raisin, sugar, bread, egg, brandy):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Plumbetter flavor fit
  3. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, currant, raisin, sugar, bread, egg, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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