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Dessert

Steamed Date Pudding

A steamed pudding made with whole wheat flour, white flour, molasses, dates, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift together whole wheat flour, white flour, salt, and baking soda.

  2. Beat the egg in a separate bowl.

  3. Add molasses, milk, melted shortening, chopped dates, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the egg and mix well.

  4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  2. Steam for 2.5 hours.

  3. Serve hot with a 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Dates + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  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

Whole wheat flour
Provides the main structure and a firmer, nutty-textured crumb.
White flour
Adds gluten-forming structure so the pudding holds together lightly.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the pudding's structure as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, lightening the pudding.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and moisture, keeping the pudding soft and chewy.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry ingredients thoroughly. Mixing well distributes the baking soda evenly so it reacts with the molasses throughout the batter. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that can taste bitter and cause uneven rising.

Swap the dates

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, flour, egg, molasses, milk, 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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