Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Mix the grated bread, minced suet, flour, salt, beaten eggs, and milk in a large bowl.
Transfer the mixture into a cloth and tie it securely.
Cook and serve
Boil the cloth in water for 4 to 5 hours.
Serve plain or with a sweet sauce.
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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Beef + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,032 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add richness and structure as they set during boiling.
- Flour
- Provides the body that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and gives it a rich texture.
- Grated bread
- Absorbs liquid and lightens the texture of the pudding.
- Milk
- Moistens the dry ingredients and helps form a soft, set batter.
The step that matters
Tying the cloth securely. If the cloth is loose or leaks, water enters the pudding and it becomes soggy and waterlogged. A tight, well-sealed cloth also leaves room for the pudding to expand slightly without bursting out during the long boil.
“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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