Name: Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 teacup finely chopped suet; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 cup raisins; 1 cup currants; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup syrup; Flour to make a stiff batter; 1 teaspoon mixed spices; ⅓ cup brandy

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine the finely chopped suet and salt.
Add the raisins, currants, sweet milk, syrup, and mixed spices.
Gradually add flour until you achieve a stiff batter.
Stir in the brandy.

Steam and serve

Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.
Steam for three 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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 rich as it steams.
Flour: Provides the structure that turns the mixture into a stiff batter that holds its shape.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy texture as they soften during steaming.
Currants: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the pudding.
Syrup: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the pudding brown slightly.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Apricotfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, milk, syrup, flour, brandy. 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.