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Mutton Pudding

A savory pudding made with mutton, onions, suet, flour, eggs, milk, raisins, currants, and ketchup, boiled in a suet-lined basin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mutton Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Fill the basin

  1. Season the mutton slices with salt and pepper.

  2. Line a basin with suet crust and place the mutton inside.

  3. Add shredded onion, shallot, and ketchup.

  4. Close the basin tightly and tie it in a cloth.

Boil

  1. Boil for sufficient time until cooked.

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, suet, eggs, milk, raisins, and currants.

  3. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes with the pot covered.

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. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + shallottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Ketchup + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Supplies the savoury meat flavour and the substance of the pudding.
Flour
Provides structure as its starches set when heated.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Suet
Melts during cooking, adding fat, richness and moisture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the flour into a loose batter.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a chewy texture.

The step that matters

Close the basin tightly and tie it in a cloth. A loose seal lets boiling water seep into the basin and dilute the filling. A tight cover keeps the pudding steaming in its own moisture so it cooks evenly and stays moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, shallot, ketchup, flour, egg, milk):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, shallot, ketchup, flour, egg, milk. 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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