Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓
Treacle Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Mix all ingredients together well.
Boil in a cloth for four hours.
Serve with a sweet sauce.
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich, moist and tender as it cooks.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark, caramel-like flavour.
- Raisins
- Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Currants
- Add small pockets of fruity sweetness and chewiness.
The step that matters
Boil in a cloth for four hours. A steady, gentle boil cooks the suet pudding evenly through. If the water boils dry or the cloth is loose, the pudding can cook unevenly or turn soggy.
“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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