Skip to main content
Dessert

A Spice Pudding

A sweet, spiced pudding made with butter, molasses, coffee, raisins, currants, and spices, baked in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

A Spice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a pan, mix the butter and lard.

  2. Add sugar, beaten egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves; beat well.

  3. Pour in molasses and cold coffee, then add sifted flour with baking powder.

  4. Add enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  5. Fold in raisins and currants, adding flour until you can mold it by hand.

Cook and serve

  1. Shape into a roll and wrap securely in a cloth, leaving room to swell.

  2. Place in boiling water and cook for one hour.

  3. Serve cold with Spice Dip.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Butter and lard
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the pudding's color.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten as it cooks.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter and fruit together.
Raisins and currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.

The step that matters

Wrapping the roll with room to swell. The batter rises as it cooks and the leavening gas expands, so the cloth must be loose enough to allow swelling; wrapping too tightly can restrict expansion and leave a dense or misshapen pudding.

“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

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesCoffee Ice CreamCoffee Ice Cream91 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes