Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Treacle Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Boil a large saucepan of water.
Chop the suet finely and place it in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and ground ginger.
Add the chopped suet to the flour mixture and mix well.
In another bowl, mix the treacle, milk, and egg together.
Stir the treacle mixture into the flour mixture, adding more milk if needed to achieve a moist but stiff consistency.
Steam and serve
Grease a large basin and pour the mixture into it, ensuring it is full to prevent water from entering.
Sprinkle flour on top, cover with a cloth, and tie it tightly with string just below the rim.
Once the water is boiling, place the pudding in the saucepan and boil for two hours.
To serve, remove the pudding from the saucepan, take off the cloth, and invert it onto a hot dish.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Ginger + milktop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,519 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the pudding as it steams and sets.
- Suet
- Adds richness and a tender, crumbly texture as it melts during steaming.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during steaming, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep molasses flavor.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps give the pudding its set structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the batter reaches a moist but stiff consistency.
The step that matters
Keep the basin full and the water boiling. A full basin leaves no room for steam or water to push into the batter, and steady boiling keeps the pudding cooking evenly. Letting the water drop or water entering the basin can make the pudding heavy or soggy.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg. 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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