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Dessert

Gingerbread Pudding

A sweet pudding made with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gingerbread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and bake

  1. Combine molasses, boiling water, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons soda dissolved in hot water, melted butter, and 3 cups flour; stir molasses, butter, and water together; add cinnamon and ginger; then add flour.

  2. Bake in two bread tins.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Put sugar and water in a saucepan and boil fifteen minutes.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs and stir into the boiling syrup.

  3. Put the basin into another pot of hot water until it begins to thicken.

  4. Add butter and the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth.

  5. Add vanilla, stir one minute longer, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

704Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
111 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
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
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 Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary 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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + teatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together216 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + teatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the syrup and whites add lightness through beaten air.
Soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Sugar
Boiled with water to make a syrup that adds sweetness and body.
Butter
Adds fat that gives a richer, softer texture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Stirring the beaten yolks into the boiling syrup. Hot syrup can scramble egg yolks if they are added too quickly. Stirring steadily while pouring in the yolks lets them warm and thicken smoothly.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

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