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Pudding

A rich almond and beef suet pudding made with cream, bread crumbs, macaroons, dried fruit, spices, and Cognac.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond cream

  1. Blanch and beat the Jordan and bitter almonds until smooth.

  2. Gradually pour in the boiling cream and strain through a cloth.

  3. Heat ½ pint of the strained cream and pour it over the bread crumbs. Cover and let cool.

Mix and steam

  1. Mix in the crushed macaroons, minced beef suet, flour, sugar, cherries, raisins, candied citron, salt, nutmeg, egg yolks, lemon rind, and Cognac brandy.

  2. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold or basin that holds 1 quart, filling it to the brim.

  3. Cover with buttered parchment and a floured cloth. Tie securely.

  4. Boil for 4 hours and 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Let it stand for 2 minutes before turning out.

  2. Turn out and serve with German pudding sauce.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + raisintop 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. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in the almond cream, they absorb liquid and give the pudding its body and moisture.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender during long steaming.
Macaroons
Add almond-like flavour and some body, helping the pudding hold its shape.
Jordan almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and richness through the blanched, beaten almond cream.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the suet and cream.

The step that matters

Filling the mold to the brim. The pudding rises and expands while steaming, so a full mold can overflow or cook unevenly, while a loosely filled one may hold less shape. Keeping the mold well buttered helps the pudding release cleanly when turned out.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, cream, bread, beef, flour, sugar, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cream, bread, beef, flour, sugar, raisin. 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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