Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Raisin Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix flour, raisins, suet, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Add enough water to form a dough.
Cook the pudding
Shape the dough into a pudding and place it in a cloth or pudding basin.
Boil or steam for 3 to 4 hours.
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 + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender as it steams.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of moisture throughout the pudding.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a molasses flavour, and helps keep the crumb moist.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas as it heats, helping the pudding rise and stay light.
The step that matters
Keep the boiling or steaming steady for the full time. A steady, gentle simmer heats the pudding evenly over the long cook. If the water boils dry or the cloth or basin is not sealed well, the pudding can dry out, turn heavy, or take in water.
“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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