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Dessert

Taylor Pudding

A steamed pudding made with eggs, molasses, butter, raisins, sour milk, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Taylor Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, molasses, butter, chopped raisins, sour milk, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a stiff batter.

  3. Add spice to taste.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased steaming dish.

  2. Steam for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Serve with cold sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, deep flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich mouthfeel.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the pudding rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the stiff batter together.

The step that matters

Add the flour gradually. Adding flour slowly lets you reach a stiff but smooth batter without lumps or overworking. Too much flour at once can make the pudding dense and heavy.

“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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