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Dessert

Blackberry Pudding Steamed

A steamed pudding made with blackberries, flour, suet, molasses, milk, brown sugar, baking soda, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Blackberry Pudding Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, molasses, suet, and milk together.

  2. Add part of the flour, then the baking soda dissolved in boiling water.

  3. Stir in the remaining flour and the blackberries.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a mold and pour in the pudding mixture.

  2. Steam for 3 hours in a two-quart tin basin.

  3. Serve with sauce.

  4. It can also be sliced and fried the next day.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
Blackberries
Add fruit moisture and tartness that contrast with the sweet, dark batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth and a dark color to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the batter so the pudding rises and becomes less dense.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in boiling water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and mixed in promptly so it reacts evenly through the batter. Uneven distribution can leave dense or bitter pockets and uneven rising.

“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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