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Dessert

Plain Fruit Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, raisins, citron, suet, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plain Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, stir together the flour, cream of tartar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk.

Make and steam

  1. Mix all ingredients together until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased mold.

  3. Steam for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it steams.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda for rising.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the milk. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the cream of tartar. Undissolved pockets can leave bitter spots and uneven rising in the steamed pudding.

“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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