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Dessert

Steamed Bread Pudding

A steamed pudding made from bread crumbs, flour, butter, molasses, raisins, egg, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine bread crumbs and hot water in a bowl; let soak.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, melted butter, molasses, raisins, egg, baking soda, and spices.

Mix and steam

  1. Add the soaked bread mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  3. Steam for 2 hours until set.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + buttertop 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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Bread crumbs
Soaked in hot water, they add body and a soft, moist crumb to the pudding.
Flour
Provides structure so the pudding holds together and sets after steaming.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, deep flavor.

The step that matters

Steam for 2 hours until set. Steaming gently at a steady heat cooks the batter through without drying it out. Letting the water boil dry or lifting the lid often can cause uneven setting and a dense or soggy texture.

“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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