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Dessert

Webster Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, milk, suet, brandy, spices, currants, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Webster Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, milk, suet, brandy or wine, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, currants, and salt until well combined.

  2. The mixture should be as soft as pound cake.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam the pudding for 2 hours.

  3. Serve with hard 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and gives the pudding its color and deep flavor.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
Currants
Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a soft, cohesive batter.

The step that matters

Judging the batter texture. The mixture should be as soft as pound cake. If it is too stiff, the pudding will be dense; if too loose, it may turn heavy or wet. Adjusting the batter before steaming gives an even, tender crumb.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, brandy, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, brandy, clove, 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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