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 ↓
Christmas Pudding in Rhyme
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs and beat them well in a bowl until combined.
Finely chop the suet and add it to the bowl.
Mix in the raisins, currants, powdered sugar, and candied peel.
Stir in the flour until everything is well combined.
Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.
Boil
Tie the mixture in a cloth and place it in a pot of water.
Boil for 1 hour for every pound of pudding.
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add moisture and structure as the pudding cooks.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch that gives the pudding its body and structure.
- Raisins
- Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
- Currants
- Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
The step that matters
Boiling the cloth-wrapped pudding. The pudding must stay submerged and boil steadily for the full time, because the water heat cooks the batter through; if the pot boils dry or the water drops to a low simmer, the center can stay raw and dense.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, raisin, sugar, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, raisin, sugar, flour. 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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