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
In a bowl, combine the suet, eggs, sugar, milk, flour, raisins, and baking powder. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Mold and steam
Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold.
Steam or boil for 2 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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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable body.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the batter as it heats, giving a lighter crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and moistens the batter.
The step that matters
Steaming or boiling for 2 hours. Steam or simmering water heats the mold gently and evenly, so the batter cooks through without drying at the edges. If the water boils dry or drops too low, the heat becomes uneven and the pudding can end up undercooked in the center or dense.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, flour. 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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