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Dessert

Golden Syrup Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, sugar, spices, baking soda, milk and golden syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Golden Syrup Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the shredded suet with the flour.

  2. Add the sugar and mixed spice to the bowl.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and mix it into the dry ingredients.

  4. Warm the Golden Syrup and add it to the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased basin.

  2. Cover the basin with greased paper and tie it with a cloth.

  3. Boil the pudding fairly fast for two hours.

  4. Serve with sweet sauce or additional Golden Syrup.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,540 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Shredded suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender while it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the milk and syrup to release gas, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and dissolves the baking soda, bringing the batter together.
Golden syrup
Adds sweetness, moisture and a rich caramel flavor to the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the pudding boiling fairly fast for the full two hours. Steaming needs steady, vigorous heat to cook the batter through and set its structure. If the water drops to a weak simmer or the basin is left uncovered or loosely sealed, the pudding can turn heavy, soggy, or unevenly cooked.

“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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