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Dessert

Steamed Carrot Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated carrot, potato, bread crumbs, suet, molasses, currants, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Steamed Carrot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the carrot and potato.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the grated carrot, grated potato, and bread crumbs.

Mix and steam

  1. Sift the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour together, then add to the mixture.

  2. Stir in the suet, molasses, currants, and raisins, and dredge with a little extra flour.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold.

  4. Steam for four 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together981 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Nutmeg + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the dense pudding together.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to give the pudding some lift and a lighter crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture with a deep, slightly bitter flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the pudding hold its shape.

The step that matters

Steam for four hours. Steaming gently and steadily for the full time cooks the dense batter through and sets its texture. Letting the water boil dry or drop low can leave the pudding undercooked and heavy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, carrot, cinnamon, nutmeg, potato, flour, molasses):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, carrot, cinnamon, nutmeg, potato, flour, molasses. 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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