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Dessert

Ginger Pudding

A steamed pudding made with ginger, molasses, raisins, citron, almonds, and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ginger Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and stir it into the buttermilk.

  2. Beat the buttermilk mixture with the molasses.

  3. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  4. Add the egg yolks and the foaming buttermilk mixture to the butter and sugar.

  5. Mix in the ginger and spices to taste.

  6. Gradually add the flour and egg whites alternately until the batter is very stiff.

  7. Flour the raisins and citron, and chop the blanched almonds.

  8. Fold the raisins, citron, and almonds into the batter.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into buttered molds, filling them no more than two-thirds full.

  2. Steam the molds for two to three hours.

  3. Serve with hot sauce.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites add richness and help bind and lift the stiff batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the pudding a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, along with a deeper caramel flavor.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.

The step that matters

Filling the molds. Batter needs room to rise as it steams. Filling molds no more than two-thirds full leaves space for expansion, so the pudding does not overflow or turn dense.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, buttermilk, flour, sugar, raisin, butter, molasses):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, buttermilk, flour, sugar, raisin, butter, molasses. 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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