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Dessert

Spanish Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, carrots, currants, potatoes, suet, eggs, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Spanish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the raisins, grated carrots, currants, grated potatoes, chopped suet, eggs, sugar, salt, and nutmeg together in a large bowl.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a buttered mold.

Cook

  1. Boil the mold in water for 6 to 8 hours.

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. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Grated potatoes
Starch adds body and helps the pudding hold together.
Grated carrots
Add moisture and a little sweetness to the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the mold in water for 6 to 8 hours. Long, steady steaming cooks the eggs and starches slowly so the pudding sets evenly and stays moist. Cooking too briefly leaves it loose and wet in the centre.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, carrot, potato, egg, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, carrot, potato, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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