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Dessert

Old English Pudding

A suet-based pudding made with bread, raisins, apples, citron, eggs, cream, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Old English Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the suet, grated bread, raisins, chopped apples, and citron.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and cream, mixing well.

  3. Season with mace and nutmeg to taste.

Cook

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold.

  2. Boil in a pot of water 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.

  1. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 cooks.
Grated bread
Provides the body that soaks up the liquids and holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm during boiling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Boiling the pudding. The pudding must stay submerged in steadily simmering water for the full three hours. Water that drops too low or boils too hard can leave the centre under-set or the cloth or mold uneven, so the eggs and bread cannot set properly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, raisin, apple, egg, cream, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, raisin, apple, egg, cream, nutmeg. 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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