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Dessert

Nut Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, suet, milk, flour, raisins, walnuts, figs, spices, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Nut Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together molasses, chopped suet, sweet milk, flour, raisins, walnuts, figs, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with a hard sauce or orange sauce.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a deep, rich flavor to the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift and lighten the batter.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft crumb.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

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