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Dessert

Very Good Raisin Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, bread crumbs, beef suet, raisins, spices, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Very Good Raisin Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, bread crumbs, beef suet, raisins, salt, ginger, nutmeg, and candied peel.

  2. In another bowl, mix the beaten eggs with milk until well combined. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until you achieve a very thick batter.

Cook

  1. Prepare a well-floured cloth, dip it in hot water, wring it out, and shake it to remove excess water. Pour the batter into the cloth and tie it securely.

  2. Boil the pudding in plenty of water for 4½ 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during boiling, giving the pudding its firm body.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and add body, helping the batter hold its shape.

The step that matters

Keeping the batter very thick. A thin batter lets the pudding turn heavy and soggy, since flour must absorb liquid and set properly. Stirring until very thick gives a firm, well-structured result once boiled.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, bread, beef, raisin, nutmeg, egg, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, bread, beef, raisin, nutmeg, 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.

More raisin pudding recipes

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