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 ↓
Currant Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pudding
In a large bowl, combine currants, suet, eggs, flour, grated nutmeg, ginger, powdered sugar, and salt, then mix well until all ingredients are fully combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or a greased pudding mold.
Cook
Boil in a pot of water for 3 hours.
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.
-
Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Currants
- Provide fruit sweetness and chewy bulk throughout the pudding.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during boiling.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help give the pudding its set structure.
- Flour
- Provides starch that thickens the batter and helps it hold together.
The step that matters
Boil in a pot of water for 3 hours. The pudding must be sealed in its cloth or greased mold and kept at a steady simmer; if the water boils dry or the seal leaks, the pudding can become soggy or dense.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, nutmeg, ginger, sugar):
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, nutmeg, ginger, sugar. 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 currant pudding recipes
You might also like
Ginger Cookies213 recipes
Ginger Cake93 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Red Currant Jelly65 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.