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 ↓
Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
In a large bowl, combine molasses, milk, shredded suet, raisins, currants, flour, Magic Baking Powder, salt, and your choice of spices or flavoring. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.
Steam for 2 hours.
Make the sauce and serve
Make the hard sauce by creaming together butter and sugar.
Add hot water to reach desired consistency, flavored with vanilla or lemon.
Serve with the hard sauce.
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 + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 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).
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
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor to the pudding.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Shredded suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
- Magic baking powder
- Releases gas that lightens the batter so the pudding rises and is less dense.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and helps form a soft, moist batter.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Steam for 2 hours. Steaming must be gentle and steady so the pudding cooks through evenly and stays moist. Letting the water boil dry or steam unevenly can leave the pudding dense or dry, and the pudding must be sealed in its mold so steam does not escape.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, raisin, flour):
- Figfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Datesfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, raisin, flour. 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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