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Dessert

Boiled Whortleberry Pudding

A boiled pudding made with molasses, whortleberries, flour, baking soda, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Boiled Whortleberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the baking soda with 2 tablespoons of molasses in a small bowl.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining molasses and whortleberries.

  3. Sift in the flour and add the grated nutmeg. Mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Tie the mixture tightly in a well-floured bag, leaving room for it to swell.

  2. Boil or steam the bag for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Serve hot with 'Fairy Butter.'

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + nutmegtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,850 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 release gas, lightening the pudding as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the batter.
Whortleberries
Provide fruit flavor, moisture and color throughout the pudding.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.

The step that matters

Tie the bag tightly, leaving room to swell. The batter rises as the baking soda reacts, so the bag needs room to expand. A tight seal with well-floured cloth keeps water out and the pudding intact during the long boil or steam.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, flour. 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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