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Dessert

Date Pudding

A steamed pudding made with dates, molasses, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped dates and baking soda.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the molasses and milk.

  3. In another bowl, mix the flour, cloves, and nutmeg, then sift to combine.

  4. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, then fold in the dates.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold, cover with buttered paper, and steam for 1.5 hours.

  2. Serve with rich pudding 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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Dates + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Dates
Provide moisture and natural sweetness, giving the pudding its dense, soft body.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavour and keeps the crumb tender.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark colour and acidity that activates the baking soda.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds softness to the batter.

The step that matters

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, then fold in the dates.. Mixing gently keeps the batter light; overmixing develops gluten in the flour and can make the pudding tough and dense instead of tender.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, molasses, clove, nutmeg, flour, milk):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, clove, nutmeg, flour, 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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