Name: Old English Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound raisins, stoned; 1 pound currants, washed; 1 pound suet, finely chopped; ¼ pound flour or finely crumbed bread; 3 ounces sugar; 1½ ounces grated lemon peel; 1 blade of mace; ½ small nutmeg; 6 eggs, beaten

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 ↓

Old English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

Combine raisins, currants, suet, flour, sugar, lemon peel, mace, nutmeg, and beaten eggs in a large bowl, then mix the ingredients well until fully combined.
Place the mixture into a cloth and tie it securely, leaving room for expansion.

Boil and serve

Boil the pudding in water for at least 5 hours, ensuring it continues to boil until done.

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

Suet: Adds fat that melts during boiling, giving the pudding a rich, moist texture.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help set the pudding as it cooks.
Flour or finely crumbed bread: Provides body and structure, helping the fruit and fat hold together.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy fruit texture throughout the pudding.
Currants: Add tart, concentrated fruit flavour and chewiness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling for the full cooking time. Steady boiling keeps the pudding at a consistent temperature so the eggs set and the suet renders evenly. If the water drops off the boil for long periods, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy or soggy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, flour, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg):

Cinnamonfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, flour, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg. 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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Old English Plum Pudding