Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ginger Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil a large saucepan of water.
Chop the suet finely after removing the skin.
In a basin, combine the flour and chopped suet, rubbing them together to avoid lumps.
Grate the ginger and add it along with the moist sugar to the mixture, mixing well.
Butter a 1‑pint basin and transfer the mixture into it.
Wring the cloth out in hot water, then in cold water.
Sprinkle flour over the cloth.
Cover the basin with the floured cloth and tie it securely with string.
Steam and serve
Place the pudding in the boiling water.
Boil for at least six hours.
Remove the basin.
Take off the cloth.
Carefully turn the pudding onto a hot dish.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding a soft, dark crumb.
- Grated ginger
- Adds the main aroma and a warm, spicy flavour.
- Butter
- Greases the basin so the pudding releases cleanly when turned out.
The step that matters
Rubbing the suet into the flour. Rubbing the suet and flour together coats the flour particles with fat and breaks up lumps, so the batter mixes evenly and the pudding steams to a smooth, tender texture rather than a dense, doughy one.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter. 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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