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Irish Black Pudding

A sweet black pudding made with rose water, almonds, bread crumbs, suet, currants, spices, cream, eggs, brandy, and candied lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Irish Black Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Blanch and pound the almonds to a paste with rose water.

  2. Grate the bread crumbs and add to the mixture.

  3. Mix in the minced suet, currants, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cream, beaten egg yolks, egg whites, brandy, and candied lemon peel.

  4. Sweeten with pounded loaf sugar to taste.

Set and serve

  1. Boil the mixture in a cloth until set.

  2. Once cold, cut into thick slices.

  3. Heat in a Dutch oven or broil on a gridiron before serving.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the mixture body so it can hold together when set.
Fresh suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich and gives a firmer texture when cooled.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set through gentle heat.
Egg whites
Add structure as they set, helping the pudding firm up when boiled.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture of the pudding.
Sweet almonds
Add body and a nutty flavour to the paste base.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture in a cloth until set. Egg proteins set with heat, and the mixture must be boiled gently and long enough to firm fully. Too little heat leaves it loose and unsliceable, while too hard a boil can make the egg tough and the texture grainy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rose, almond, bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rose, almond, bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, 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.

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