Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Snowdon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Butter a mold or basin and press the cut side of the raisins against the butter to adhere.
Make and cook the pudding
In a bowl, mix the suet, bread crumbs, rice flour, salt, marmalade, sugar, eggs, and lemon rind until well combined.
Pour the mixture gently into the prepared mold.
Cover with buttered paper and a floured cloth.
Boil for 1½ hours.
For a smaller quantity, reduce the time by 10 minutes.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,265 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Raisin + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together565 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,032 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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 help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cooks.
- Bread crumbs
- Add bulk and absorb moisture so the pudding holds its shape.
- Beef kidney suet
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it steams.
- Lemon marmalade
- Adds sweetness and citrus acidity, giving the pudding its characteristic flavor.
- Pale brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps with a softer, deeper flavor.
The step that matters
Covering the mold before boiling. A tight cover of buttered paper and floured cloth keeps steam in and water out. Loose covering lets water seep in and makes the pudding soggy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, beef, bread, rice, flour, sugar, egg):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, beef, bread, rice, flour, sugar, egg. 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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