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Dessert

Christmas Pudding

A steamed pudding made with dried fruit, suet, flour, eggs, milk, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Beat the eggs and milk together, then add to the mixture and stir well.

Steam and store

  1. Pour the mixture into well-greased molds or basins.

  2. Cover with greased paper and tie cloths over them.

  3. Boil for 6 to 10 hours, depending on the size.

  4. When turned out, dredge with caster sugar for a better appearance.

  5. If not serving immediately, store in a cool, dry place.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

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 help give the pudding its set structure when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
Flour
Adds structure and body to the mixture as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chew and concentrated fruit flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling for the full time. Long, steady steaming cooks the dense mixture through and sets it evenly. Boiling too briefly or letting the water drop leaves the centre heavy and undercooked, so check the pot and top up water through the whole time.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, sugar, flour, bread, beef, egg):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Beansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, sugar, flour, bread, beef, 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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