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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, sweet milk, molasses, raisins, and a vanilla‑flavored sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine sweet milk, molasses, raisins, baking soda, and graham flour in a large bowl, then mix well and pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam the pudding for 3 hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Cream together sugar and butter for the sauce.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and mix well, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Flavor the sauce with vanilla.

  4. Serve the sauce over the pudding.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Graham flour
Forms the bulk of the pudding's structure as it steams.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a rich, deep flavor to the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add airiness and lightness to the sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce and help it thicken and bind as it sets.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped whites. Stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving the sauce dense rather than light.

“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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