Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Graham Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine molasses, baking soda, sweet milk, and Graham flour.
Fold in the dredged raisins.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 3 hours.
Serve with hot wine sauce or with cream and sugar.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Adds sweetness, dark color, and a moist, rich flavor to the pudding.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses acidity to produce gas, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour and forms a loose batter that sets during steaming.
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk structure of the pudding, with its coarse bran adding texture.
- Seeded raisins
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness distributed through the pudding.
The step that matters
Dredging the raisins in flour. Flour-coated raisins are less likely to sink to the bottom of the batter, so they stay spread evenly through the pudding as it steams and sets.
“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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