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Dessert

Hastings Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, sweet milk, butter, flour, spices, hickory nuts, raisins, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Hastings Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

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

  2. Mix in flour, cinnamon, cloves, hickory nut meats, raisins, and baking powder until well combined.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 2 hours until cooked through.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a rich, deep flavor to the pudding.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it reacts, helping the pudding rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb (suet can be used instead).
Hickory nut meats
Add crunch and a nutty flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for 2 hours until cooked through. Steaming gently cooks the batter through without drying it, and the pudding must be fully set in the centre. Keep the water simmering and the mold sealed so steam stays in contact with the pudding for the full time.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, butter, flour, cinnamon, meat, raisin. 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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