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White Hog Puddings

A pudding made with hog skins, rice, groats, marrow, currants, almonds, spices, and eggs, boiled and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

White Hog Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Boil the rice in milk until tender.

  3. Prepare the groats as directed in the previous article.

  4. Chop the beef marrow or suet finely.

  5. Wash and dry the currants.

  6. Blanch the almonds and beat them in a mortar with a little rose water.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the eggs with salt, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cream.

  2. Mix all ingredients together.

  3. Soak the skins in rose water.

  4. Fill the skins three‑quarters full with the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the filled skins for a few minutes.

  2. Prick the skins to prevent bursting.

  3. Return the skins to the boiling water and cook until done.

  4. Cool the puddings in straw and keep them dry.

  5. Broil the puddings when ready to serve.

  6. Serve with cold butter or wine sauce.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and set it into a firm, sliceable pudding when cooked.
Beef marrow or suet
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a tender, rounded texture.
Rice
Provides body and bulk, helping the filling hold its shape.
Sweet almonds
Add richness and a nutty flavour, and thicken the filling when beaten.
Currants
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the filling.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the filling and adds to its tender texture.

The step that matters

Prick the skins before returning them to the water. Pricking lets steam escape as the filling expands during cooking, so the casings do not burst and the puddings keep their shape.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, beef, almond, rose, egg, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, beef, almond, rose, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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