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 ↓
Plum Pudding,
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Chop the beef suet finely.
In a bowl, combine the suet, raisins, flour, salt, sugar, and grated nutmeg.
Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture without any additional liquid.
Boil the pudding
Flour a clean cloth well and tie it securely.
Place the cloth in a saucepan with 6 quarts of boiling water.
Keep a kettle of boiling water nearby to refill as needed.
Boil for at least 6 hours.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef suet
- Provides fat that melts during boiling, keeping the pudding moist and rich.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure as they set during the long cooking.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture so it holds together rather than falling apart.
- Sun raisins
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavour.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding a rich, deep flavour.
The step that matters
Keep the water boiling for the full cooking time. Long boiling sets the eggs and cooks the flour and suet through. If the water drops below a boil, the pudding cooks unevenly and may turn heavy or soggy, so the kettle of hot water is used to top up the pot.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, raisin, flour, sugar, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Jalapenofits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, raisin, flour, sugar, 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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