Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
In a large bowl, mix the eggs and milk together.
Add most of the crushed soda crackers, then the suet, raisins, currants, citron, salt, and baking soda.
If the mixture is too thin, gradually add more crushed crackers until it thickens to a stiff consistency.
Bag and boil
Prepare a pudding bag by scalding it in boiling water and flouring it generously.
Place the mixture into the bag, gather it tightly, and tie it with strong string, leaving little room for expansion.
Boil in a pot of water for 2½ hours, placing an old plate at the bottom of the pot to prevent sticking.
Serve
Serve with a sauce made of water, butter, sugar, and nutmeg, thickened with arrowroot or flour.
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Beef + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Currant + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help give the pudding its set structure as it cooks.
- Soda crackers
- Absorb the milk and eggs, thickening the mixture to a stiff, sliceable body.
- Beef suet
- Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
- Raisins
- Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Currants
- Add concentrated fruit flavour and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Baking soda
- Lightens the mixture so the pudding rises slightly while it cooks.
The step that matters
Tying the bag. Leaving little room for expansion matters because the pudding swells as it cooks; a loose bag lets water in and the pudding can become soggy or burst.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, beef, egg, milk):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, beef, egg, milk. 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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