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Blueberry Pudding

A molasses-based blueberry pudding made with baking soda, flour, and eggs, boiled for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Blueberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in warm water.

  2. Add the dissolved soda to the molasses and stir until light.

  3. Mix in the cinnamon, cloves, and salt.

  4. Add enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  5. Fold in the blueberries and then the beaten eggs.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold and boil for three hours.

  2. Serve with sweetened cream.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Clove + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the batter and help it rise.
New orleans molasses
Provides the sweetness, dark color, and moisture of the pudding.
Flour
Forms the stiff batter that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Blueberries
Add juicy fruit pockets and moisture throughout the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a mold and boil for three hours. The pudding is cooked by steam and boiling water, so the mold must be sealed and the water kept boiling for the full time. If the water drops or the mold leaks, the pudding cooks unevenly and turns out dense or soggy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, cinnamon, flour, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, cinnamon, flour, 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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