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Dessert

English Pudding, No. 2

A suet-based pudding with sugar, flour, eggs, spices, dried fruit, almonds, citron, and apples, baked in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

English Pudding, No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the finely chopped suet with the sifted flour.

  2. Add the granulated sugar, eggs, sweet cream, and rum; mix well.

  3. Incorporate nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, salt, currants, raisins, almonds, citron, and apples.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a pudding form.

  2. Place the covered kettle into a 350°F (175°C) oven using one radiator.

  3. Serve with hard or liquid sauce after 2 to 3 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during cooking.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist as it cooks.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding as the batter sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface.
Apples
Add moisture and a tender, fruity texture throughout the pudding.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg, cream, rum, nutmeg, cinnamon):

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, cream, rum, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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