Name: Graham Pudding
Ingredients: 1 egg; ½ cup molasses; ½ cup sweet milk; ½ cup melted butter; 1 cup chopped raisins; 1½ cups graham flour; ½ teaspoon baking soda dissolved in warm water; a little nutmeg

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 ↓

Graham Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine the egg, molasses, sweet milk, melted butter, chopped raisins, graham flour, baking soda mixture, and nutmeg. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Steam

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 2 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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 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

Egg: Binds the batter and helps give the pudding its set structure.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, moist flavor.
Graham flour: Provides the bulk and coarse, wholesome texture of the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.
Raisins: Add pockets of chewy sweetness throughout the pudding.

Swap the nutmeg

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegthe original
Clovefits less well
Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, milk, butter, raisin, 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.