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 ↓
Steamed Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the molasses, baking soda, butter, salt, sour milk, cinnamon or nutmeg, raisins, and flour together until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam
Steam the pudding for 2 hours until cooked through.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, dark color and a deep flavor to the pudding.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts and lightens the batter.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture to the batter.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the pudding its structure.
The step that matters
Steam the pudding for 2 hours until cooked through.. Gentle, steady steam cooks the batter evenly without drying it out. The baking soda and sour milk lift the batter as it heats, so the greased mold should be filled so the pudding can rise without spilling.
“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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