Name: Steam Pudding
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon ground allspice; 1 cup suet, chopped; 1 cup New Orleans molasses; 1 cup seeded fruit; 1 cup sweet milk; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; 4 cups all-purpose flour

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Steam Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the cinnamon, allspice, suet, molasses, fruit, milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour until thick.
Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.
Steam the pudding for 4 hours.

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.

Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Cinnamon + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,928 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,302 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

All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the batter as it sets during steaming.
Suet: Adds richness and moisture, keeping the steamed pudding tender.
New orleans molasses: Provides sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses and cream of tartar to lighten the batter.
Cream of tartar: Acidifies the batter, working with baking soda to produce gas for rising.

Swap the allspice

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Clovefits about as well
Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, molasses, milk, cream, 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.