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Dessert

Christmas Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, sultanas, mixed peel, almonds, flour, breadcrumbs, suet, eggs, milk, lemon rind, salt, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Beat the eggs and milk together, then add the beaten mixture to the rest and stir well.

  3. Pour the mixture into well-greased molds or basins.

Cover and boil

  1. Cover with greased paper, then tie cloths over the paper.

  2. Boil for 6 to 10 hours, depending on size.

Serve

  1. Turn out the puddings.

  2. Dust with caster sugar.

  3. Store in a cool, dry place if not serving immediately.

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.

  1. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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 it set firmly as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Add body and absorb liquid, giving the pudding a soft, cohesive structure.
Flour
Adds structure to the pudding so it holds its shape after steaming.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding taste rich and balanced.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 6 to 10 hours, depending on size. Long, steady boiling cooks the batter through gently and sets the pudding. Too little time leaves it heavy and underdone, so larger puddings need the longer end of the range.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, sugar, flour, bread, beef, egg):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Beansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, sugar, flour, bread, beef, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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