Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the batter
Mix and sift the dry ingredients together.
Add the suet and raisins, and mix well.
Stir in the molasses, sour milk, and egg.
Steam and serve
Turn the mixture into a greased mold, cover it, and steam for 13 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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,928 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that give the pudding its body and structure.
- Suet
- Adds solid fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas that lifts the batter.
- Sour milk
- Supplies acidity to activate the baking soda and adds moisture.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps it set firm as it cooks.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color with a rich flavor.
The step that matters
Covering the mold before steaming. A tightly covered mold traps steam around the batter so it cooks evenly and stays moist. An uncovered or loosely sealed mold lets steam escape, which can dry the outside and leave the center underdone.
“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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