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Dessert

Victoria Pudding

A steamed pudding made with mashed potatoes, carrots, bread, sugar, suet, currants, eggs, spices, and lemon peel.

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 batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, grated carrots, grated bread, sugar, suet, currants or raisins, beaten eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon peel, and salt. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 4 hours.

  2. Serve with 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. 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set as it cooks.
Bread
Adds body and soaks up moisture, giving the pudding a soft crumb.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Mashed potatoes
Add moisture and bulk, helping the pudding stay tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding its flavor and color.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 hours. The pudding must cook long and steadily so the eggs set fully and the texture becomes firm and moist. Letting the water stop simmering can leave the center undercooked.

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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