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Swiss Pudding

A sweet pudding made with molasses, raisins, spices, and flour, boiled for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Swiss Pudding

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Swiss Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Gradually add flour until the mixture reaches a cream-like consistency.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pot and boil for two 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, with a slightly acidic character that reacts with the baking soda.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture as they plump during cooking.
Flour
Thickens the mixture and gives it body, setting it to a cream-like consistency.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas, lightening the mixture and helping it rise.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma that complements the molasses.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Flour thickens as its starch absorbs liquid and gelatinizes, so adding it in small amounts lets you stop at a cream-like consistency. Adding it all at once can leave lumps or an overly stiff mixture.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, raisin, cinnamon, flour, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, raisin, cinnamon, flour, cream. 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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