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Dessert

Whortleberry Pudding

A baked pudding made with flour, eggs, brown sugar, butter, spices, baking soda, milk, and whortleberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Whortleberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat together the flour, eggs, brown sugar, butter, spices, and baking soda dissolved in a little milk.

  2. Gently fold in the whortleberries.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 1 hour or until set and golden.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Eggs
Set when heated, giving the pudding its firm, custard-like structure.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the top turn golden as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender crumb and flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the mixture to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Whortleberries
Add moisture, tartness and color throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Fold in the whortleberries gently. Vigorous stirring breaks the batter's structure and can crush the berries, releasing juice that makes the pudding wet and streaky. Gentle folding keeps the batter airy and the berries whole.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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