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Dessert

Gingerbread Pudding

A baked gingerbread pudding with molasses, sour milk, pastry flour, butter, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, vinegar, egg, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Gingerbread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix molasses, butter, and cinnamon.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in sour milk and add to the molasses mixture.

  4. Stir in the flour, then add vinegar.

  5. Pour the batter into tin pie plates, about 1 inch thick.

Bake

  1. Bake for 2 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, beat the egg white until stiff.

  2. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, then add vanilla and the unbeaten yolk.

  3. Finally, mix in the milk.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark flavor and moisture to the batter.
Pastry flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk and vinegar to release gas that lifts the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Egg
Adds structure and richness; the whipped white gives the sauce its airy lift.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Beating the egg white until stiff. Whipping the white until it holds stiff peaks traps air that gives the sauce lightness. Adding the sugar gradually stabilizes that foam so it does not collapse when the yolk and milk are folded in.

“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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