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Dessert

Molasses Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Molasses Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the molasses and baking soda.

  2. Add melted butter, egg, flour, and sweet milk; stir until combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1 hour.

  2. Serve warm.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, dark color, and a deep flavor to the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the pudding together as it sets.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set firm during steaming.
Melted butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture for a soft texture.

The step that matters

Mixing the molasses and baking soda first. Baking soda reacts with the acid in molasses to release gas. Combining them at the start lets that reaction begin, so the batter can rise evenly during steaming.

“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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