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Dessert

Saffron Pudding

A boiled suet and flour pudding flavored with saffron, cognac, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Saffron and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 418 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Saffron Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the suet with the flour (or flour and crumbled French roll).

  2. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then add the cream, cognac, saffron, and ginger.

  3. Combine the egg mixture with the flour and suet mixture until well mixed.

Cook

  1. Place the mixture into a floured cloth, tie it tightly but leave room for expansion.

  2. Boil the pudding in water for nearly 3 hours without interruption.

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. Saffron + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together418 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + saffrontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + saffrontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together243 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Kidney suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that give the pudding its body and structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture for a richer, softer texture.
Cognac
Adds aroma and flavor depth to the pudding.
Saffron
Gives the pudding its distinctive aroma, flavor, and golden color.

The step that matters

Leave room for expansion in the cloth. The pudding swells as the flour absorbs liquid and starch gelatinises during boiling. If it is tied too tightly, the expanding dough can burst the cloth or become dense, so the tie should be firm but leave space for it to rise.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, cream, saffron):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, cream, saffron. 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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