Name: Suet Pudding
Ingredients: 3 cups all-purpose flour; 1 cup finely chopped suet; 1 cup milk; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup chopped raisins; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 small nutmeg, grated; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Suet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix 2 cups of flour with the suet.
Add the milk, molasses, chopped raisins, baking soda, ground cloves, grated nutmeg, and salt.
Stir in the remaining 1 cup of flour until well combined.

Steam and serve

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Boil for 3 to 4 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.

Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,070 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the batter once it is set by cooking.
Suet: Adds richness and a tender, moist crumb as it melts during cooking.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Milk: Hydrates the flour so the batter forms and binds together.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, molasses, raisin, nutmeg):

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, molasses, raisin, nutmeg. 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.