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Dessert

Steamed Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, sugar, milk, berries, egg, baking soda, cream of tartar, butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Steamed Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  2. Add milk, egg, berries, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir until combined.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into cups.

  2. Steam for 30 minutes.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding as its starch and proteins set during steaming.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set into a firm, tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that lifts the pudding.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and helps create a lighter texture.
Berries
Add moisture, tartness, and color that contrast with the sweet batter.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the batter form a soft, tender crumb.

The step that matters

Stir until combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes the pudding tough and dense. Stir only until the ingredients are evenly combined, leaving a few small lumps.

“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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