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
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, combine sugar, suet, bread crumbs, milk, raisins, currants, and eggs.
Mix in enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Add spices to taste.
Boil
Place the mixture in a well-floured cloth and tie it loosely.
Boil steadily for 4 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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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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
- Suet
- Adds richness and moisture to the pudding.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the milk and help give the batter body.
- Flour
- Stiffens the batter so it holds its shape in the cloth.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy texture.
The step that matters
Tying the cloth loosely. The pudding swells as it cooks, so a loose tie leaves room to expand. A tight cloth can compress it or split it open during the long boil.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread, milk, raisin, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, milk, raisin, egg, 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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