Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓
College Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Combine flour, suet, molasses, baking soda, sour milk, salt, and raisins in a large bowl and mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.
Boil in a pot of water for three hours.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and milk 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long cooking.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, robust flavor.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
- Sour milk
- Supplies acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
The step that matters
Boil in a pot of water for three hours. The mold must stay submerged in steadily simmering water for the full time. If the water boils dry or drops too low, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn dense or soggy.
“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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