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Dessert

Harvard Pudding

A steamed pudding made with butter, molasses, milk, flour, spices, and chopped dates.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Harvard Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the molasses, milk, flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg. Mix well.

  3. Stir in the chopped dates.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold, cover it, and steam for 2½ hours.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark sweetness and a deep, rich flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Dates
Add natural sweetness, chewiness and moisture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a buttered mold, cover it, and steam for 2½ hours.. The mold must be buttered so the pudding releases cleanly, and it must be tightly covered so steam cooks it gently and keeps it moist. Lifting the lid or letting water in lets moisture escape and changes the texture.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, molasses, milk, flour, clove, allspice, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, milk, flour, clove, allspice, 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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