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Dessert

Thanksgiving Pudding

A steamed pudding made with milk, crackers, spices, butter, eggs, raisins, currants, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Scald the milk and pour it over the rolled crackers.

  2. Let the mixture stand for one hour.

Make and bake

  1. Add sugar, melted butter, beaten eggs, cream, spices, and fruits to the mixture.

  2. Turn the mixture into a buttered mold and set it in a pan of hot water.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for three hours, stirring after the first half hour to prevent the fruit from settling.

Serve

  1. Remove from the mold and serve with Hard Sauce.

  2. This pudding can be baked the day before and reheated for serving.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the pudding and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard.
Rolled crackers
Soak up the hot milk to form the body of the pudding.
Milk
Softens the crackers and adds moisture to the mixture.
Cream
Adds richness and a tender, moist texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the spices and fruit.

The step that matters

Stirring after the first half hour. The dense fruit sinks in the thin batter while it begins to set. Stirring once during baking keeps the currants, raisins and citron evenly distributed through the pudding.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, butter, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, butter, egg, cream. 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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