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Dessert

Military Pudding

A baked pudding made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, spices, eggs, sour milk, baking soda, and flour.

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 ↓

Military 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace.

  2. Add the egg yolks and sour milk, then mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour until well combined.

  5. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and gently fold them into the batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake for 1 hour.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 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 color, moisture and a deep, sweet, slightly bitter flavor.
Eggs
Egg whites set the structure when folded in, and yolks add richness and binding.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the pudding rise and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, leavening the batter.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the pudding its body.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that lifts the batter. Overmixing or deflating them during folding removes that air, leaving a dense pudding.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, egg, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk. 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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