Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Sultana Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pudding
Boil a large saucepan of water.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, then add the breadcrumbs, sugar, and chopped suet.
Clean the sultanas and mix them into the other ingredients.
Add enough water to form a stiff dough.
Wrap and steam
Place the mixture in a greased pudding basin.
Dip a pudding cloth in boiling water.
Sprinkle the cloth with flour.
Tie the cloth over the basin, leaving a pleat for the pudding to rise.
Plunge the basin into the boiling water and boil steadily for 2 to 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.
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once bound with water.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the moist dough, helping the pudding rise.
- Breadcrumbs
- Absorb liquid and give the pudding a light, soft body.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
- Sultanas
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout.
The step that matters
Leaving a pleat in the cloth. The pudding swells as it cooks, and a tightly tied cloth can restrict rising and cause the pudding to burst or turn dense. A pleat allows room for expansion while keeping water out.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 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.