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March Pudding

A sweet pudding of dried apples, molasses, flour, butter, egg, soda, spices, served hot with a butter‑sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Sterrett, Laura C · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

March Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Wash and soak the apples overnight.

  2. Cut the apples finely and mix them with the water they were soaked in.

  3. Add the molasses and the spices: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and optionally lemon or vanilla.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the egg, butter, and flour together.

  2. Stir the soda into the apple-molasses mixture.

  3. Add the egg-butter-flour mixture to the apples and bake immediately.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. While the pudding bakes, prepare a sauce by beating together half a cup of butter and one cup of sugar until smooth, then flavor with nutmeg, lemon or vanilla.

  2. Serve the hot pudding with the sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

400Calories
7 gProtein
18 gFat
56 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
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Teanot 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 Sterrett, Laura C. 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Tea + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together245 recipes

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

  4. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apples
Provide the fruit body and moisture that give the pudding its texture.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep flavor, and moisture to the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps give the pudding structure as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the pudding rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Bake immediately after adding the egg-butter-flour mixture. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic molasses, so its lifting gas escapes if the batter waits. Baking right away keeps the rise and lightness the batter is meant to have.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, egg, tea, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, egg, tea, cinnamon, 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.

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