Name: Common Baked Raisin Pudding
Ingredients: ¾ pound flour; ¾ pound raisins; 6 ounces beef suet, finely chopped; ¼ teaspoon salt; grated nutmeg to taste; 3 large eggs, whisked; ¼ pint milk (or less if eggs are large)

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 ↓

Common Baked Raisin Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the pudding

In a large bowl, beat together the flour, raisins, chopped beef suet, salt, and nutmeg.
Add the whisked eggs and milk, mixing until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a buttered dish.

Bake

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour: Provides the bulk and structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and set on baking, giving the pudding its firm, cohesive texture.
Beef suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it bakes.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and combines with the eggs to form a loose batter that sets in the oven.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the eggs and flour. The milk should be reduced if the eggs are large, since too much liquid makes the batter loose and can keep the pudding from setting firmly in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

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

Cinnamonfits about as well
Nutmegthe original
Jalapenofits less well
Turmericfits less well

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

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Common Baked Raisin Pudding