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Dessert

Victoria Pudding

A steamed pudding made with mashed potatoes, grated carrots, grated bread, sugar, suet, currants, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon peel, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Victoria Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well until fully combined.

  2. Transfer mixture to a pudding cloth or mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil in water for 4 hours.

  2. Serve warm.

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. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together981 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Adds body and moisture, giving the pudding a soft, dense crumb.
Grated carrots
Contribute moisture and natural sweetness to the pudding.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and helps bind the mixture into a cohesive pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding taste rich and balanced.
Suet
Adds fat, which gives the pudding a rich, tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the ingredients together and add structure as they set during cooking.

The step that matters

Boil in water for 4 hours. The pudding must be sealed tightly in its cloth or mold and kept at a steady simmer so it cooks through evenly. Water that boils dry or escapes the mold can leave the pudding unevenly cooked or soggy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, carrot, bread, sugar, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, carrot, bread, sugar, egg, 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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