Why it works: Beef and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
In a basin, combine the flour and chopped suet.
Add the eggs, salt, and water or milk.
Beat well with a wooden spoon to make a thick batter.
Cook and serve
Flour a pudding cloth and lay it in a small round-bottomed basin; pour in the mixture.
Tie the cloth tightly.
Place the pudding in boiling water and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
When done, remove the cloth, turn the pudding onto a dish, and serve hot.
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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Beef + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Beef suet
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender and fat-coated as it steams.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the pudding's structure during cooking.
- Water or milk
- Hydrates the flour so the batter forms and thickens into a pudding texture.
The step that matters
Tie the cloth tightly. A loose cloth lets water seep into the pudding during boiling, making it soggy and dense, and can let the pudding swell unevenly.
“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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