Skip to main content
Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, milk, molasses, raisins, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the graham flour to make it light, returning the bran to the mixture.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in 1 tablespoon of milk.

  3. In a bowl, combine the remaining milk, molasses, and salt.

  4. Pour this mixture over the graham flour and beat well.

  5. Fold in the chopped raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a mold and steam for 4 hours.

  2. Turn out the pudding and serve with 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. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Graham flour
Provides the bulk and the coarse, nutty texture of the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a rich, sweet flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and forms the batter's liquid base.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness distributed through the pudding.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in milk before combining. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and evenly distributed so it reacts with the acidic molasses throughout the batter; uneven distribution leaves dense spots or soapy, bitter pockets.

“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.

More graham pudding recipes

Steamed 22Apple 3 See all 149 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes