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Dessert

Suet or Carrot Pudding

A steamed pudding made with carrots, suet, molasses, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,021 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Suet or Carrot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix all the ingredients together, adding the baking soda last.

  2. Put the mixture in a closed mold and steam for three hours.

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. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  5. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Provide moisture and body, giving the pudding its dense, moist crumb.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, moist flavor.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds together after steaming.
Flour
Stiffens the batter and gives the pudding its structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, egg, raisin, currant, sugar, lemon, allspice):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, raisin, currant, sugar, lemon, allspice. 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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