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Suet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, flour, milk, eggs, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the suet and flour together.

  2. In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and molasses.

  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

  4. Stir in the raisins, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and cloves.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for about 2 hours or until cooked through.

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.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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

Suet
Provides fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a moist, rich texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and molasses to help the pudding rise.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with the baking soda to produce lift.

The step that matters

Stir in the raisins, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and cloves. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas for lift. Mixing it evenly through the batter, without overworking it, gives an even rise and texture.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, molasses, raisin, cream. 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 suet pudding recipes

Lemon 28Boiled 19Steamed 12Potato 11Apple 10Raisin 10 See all 649 →

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