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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, milk, butter, egg, baking soda, spices, graham flour, and raisins.

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 ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, milk, butter, and egg. Mix well.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves, and graham flour.

  3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

  4. Fold in the raisins.

Steam and set

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 3 hours until set.

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. Cinnamon + flourtop 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 moisture, dark color and a deep, sweet flavor to the pudding.
Egg
Helps bind the batter and sets during steaming to give the pudding structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Graham flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding and gives it a hearty, nutty texture.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding the flour mixture slowly and stirring only until combined keeps the batter smooth and prevents lumps. Overmixing develops gluten and can make the pudding dense and tough.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, butter, egg, cinnamon, flour, 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, egg, cinnamon, flour, 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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