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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, raisins, molasses, and a sweet sauce of sugar, butter, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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

Make the pudding

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, butter, and egg until well combined.

  2. Stir in the sour milk, baking soda, salt, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and graham flour until smooth.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold and steam for 2 hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, combine the sugar and butter in a saucepan with hot water and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the jelly and thicken the mixture with cornstarch mixed with a little water.

  3. Stir in the brandy and serve warm over the pudding.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Binds the batter and adds structure as the pudding sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Graham flour
Provides the bulk and structure of the pudding.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich, deep sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce as it heats.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be mixed smoothly with a little cold water before it goes into the hot liquid, and the sauce must simmer briefly. Otherwise it forms lumps or stays thin, because starch granules only swell and thicken once heated in liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, butter, egg, milk, raisin, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, egg, milk, raisin, cinnamon. 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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