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Dessert

Steamed Pudding

A steamed pudding made with currants, raisins, suet, sugar, cracker crumbs, spices, eggs, and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Steamed Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine one cup currants, one cup raisins, one cup chopped suet, one cup sugar, one cup rolled cracker crumbs, three eggs well beaten, one teaspoon allspice, one-half teaspoon cloves, one teaspoon cinnamon, two tablespoons tlour, pinch salt, and one-fourth teaspoon soda dissolved in one-fourth cup warm water; let cool.

  2. Milk enough to make a soft batter.

  3. Add soda last, steam three or four hours.

Serve

  1. Make any sauce to serve with it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

273Calories
8 gProtein
8 gFat
45 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cracker5 saltine crackers (15g)66
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Rolled cracker crumbs
Provide bulk and soak up liquid to give the pudding body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps tenderise the crumb.
Soda
Reacts to lighten the batter so the pudding rises as it steams.

The step that matters

Add soda last, steam three or four hours. The soda is dissolved in warm water and reacts to lift the batter, so it should be added just before steaming to keep its lift. Steaming for the full three or four hours cooks the batter through gently and evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, egg. 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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