Skip to main content
Dessert

Brown Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, sweet milk, suet or butter, raisins, flour, soda, salt, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ramblers' club, Minneapolis. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Brown Pudding

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 ↓

Brown Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Combine 1 cup molasses, 1 cup sweet milk, 1 cup suet chopped fine or 1 cup melted butter, and 1 cup raisins.

  2. Add 2 heaping cups flour and 1 tsp soda.

  3. Mix well, then add salt and spices to taste.

Steam

  1. Steam for 2 hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

912Calories
22 gProtein
23 gFat
156 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Ramblers' club, Minneapolis. [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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and dark color to the pudding.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Suet
Adds fat, making the pudding rich and tender.
Soda (in the method)
Reacts with the batter to lift it, so the pudding rises and is lighter.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, raisin, sugar, flour, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipes