Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Hasty Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the suet in a frying pan until browned.
Add the chopped onion and parsley, and sauté for 20 minutes until browned.
Set the pan aside to simmer slowly until the onions are cooked.
Stir in the oatmeal and serve very 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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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet
- Melts to provide fat that browns the pan and adds richness and savoury flavour.
- Onion
- Browns and softens as it cooks, developing sweetness and savoury depth.
- Oatmeal
- Absorbs the fat and cooking liquid, giving the pudding its body and bulk.
The step that matters
Sautéing the onion until browned. Browning develops savoury flavour through caramelisation and Maillard reactions. Too high a heat can scorch the onion and make it bitter, while too little heat leaves it pale and flat-tasting.
“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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