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Dessert

Molasses Plum Pudding

A baked pudding made with butter, molasses, flour, raisins, optional citron, baking soda, buttermilk, and spices.

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

Molasses Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter and molasses together in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  3. Add the stoned raisins and shredded citron if using.

  4. Mix the baking soda into the buttermilk or sour milk, then add to the batter.

  5. Season with mace or cinnamon to taste.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold and boil for four and a half hours.

  2. Serve with 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a tender, moist crumb.
Molasses or sorghum
Provides sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor, and moisture to the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter so the pudding holds its shape when boiled.
Stoned raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture pockets throughout the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk or sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Buttermilk or sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture.

The step that matters

Mixing the baking soda into the buttermilk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Mixing it into the buttermilk or sour milk before adding it to the batter lets the reaction start in a liquid that is already acidic, so the gas is evenly distributed for a lighter texture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, molasses, flour, raisin, buttermilk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, flour, raisin, buttermilk. 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.

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