Name: Skeleton Recipe for Suet Puddings
Ingredients: 1 lb flour or flour and breadcrumbs; 1/2 lb suet (or 3 to 8 oz for a lighter pudding); 1/2 to 1 lb dried fruits, candied peel, chopped almonds, etc.; 4 to 6 oz sugar or 1/2 lb jam, treacle, or marmalade; Eggs or milk (enough to mix into a thick batter); Brandy or wine, ground ginger, nutmeg, or other spices (as required); 1 teaspoon baking powder (if using less than half the weight of suet to flour)

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Skeleton Recipe for Suet Puddings

Ingredients

1 lb flour or flour and breadcrumbs
1/2 lb suet (or 3 to 8 oz for a lighter pudding)
1/2 to 1 lb dried fruits, candied peel, chopped almonds, etc.
4 to 6 oz sugar or 1/2 lb jam, treacle, or marmalade
Eggs or milk (enough to mix into a thick batter)
Brandy or wine, ground ginger, nutmeg, or other spices (as required)
1 teaspoon baking powder (if using less than half the weight of suet to flour)

Directions

Chop the suet very finely, ideally by shaving it into thin flakes, dusting with flour, and chopping across a ridge on the board.
Mix all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, suet, fruits, peel, sugar) thoroughly.
Add eggs or milk gradually to form a thick batter.
If using less than half the weight of suet to flour, add 1 teaspoon of baking powder for every 1/2 lb of flour mixture.
Flavor with brandy, wine, or spices as desired.

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.

Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,340 recipes

Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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Skeleton Recipe for Suet Puddings