Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, mix the chopped suet, flour, and salt.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and milk together.
Strain the egg and milk mixture and gradually add it to the suet and flour mixture, stirring until a stiff paste forms.
Boil
Boil the pudding in a cloth or a mold for about 2 hours.
Alternatively, form the paste into 8 dumplings without eggs, roll them in flour, and boil in plain water for 45 minutes, or alongside mutton or beef.
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 + 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).
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
- Suet
- Melts during boiling to give the pudding a rich, moist, tender texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the stiff paste that holds the pudding together.
- Eggs
- Bind the paste and help set the pudding as it cooks.
The step that matters
Stirring the egg and milk into the suet and flour. Adding the liquid gradually and stirring until a stiff paste forms keeps the batter from becoming lumpy or too wet, so the pudding holds its shape while boiling.
“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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