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Dessert

College Puddings

A suet and currant pudding baked or fried, flavored with nutmeg, ginger, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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College Puddings

Why it works: Nutmeg and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

College Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the eggs in a quart basin until combined.

  3. Mix in flour, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar to form a smooth batter.

  4. Add suet and currants, mixing well.

  5. Stir in brandy or white wine if using.

Bake or fry and serve

  1. For baking, add an extra egg or milk and pour into patty pans.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

  3. If frying, roll in flour and fry in butter or lard until light brown.

  4. Serve with white wine sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and set the pudding structure as it bakes.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter holds its shape when baked or fried.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and aids browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Frying in butter or lard. Over-high heat browns the flour coating before the inside cooks, while low heat leaves it pale and greasy. Medium heat gives an even light brown crust.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, brandy, butter):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, brandy, butter. 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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