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Dessert

Nut Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, sweet milk, suet, flour, spices, walnuts, and figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 373 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Nut Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, sweet milk, and grated suet.

  2. In another bowl, mix flour, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

  4. Fold in the chopped walnuts and figs.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 2 ½ 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. Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the pudding as it steams.
Grated suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming to give the pudding lift.
Chopped english walnuts
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor against the soft crumb.

Swap the walnut

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

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

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