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Dessert

Date Pudding

A steamed pudding made with dates, molasses, butter, milk, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Add the melted butter, molasses, and milk, mixing well.

  3. Fold in the chopped dates last.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 1 ½ hours.

  3. Serve with hard sauce or whipped cream.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the texture and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, molasses, milk, flour, clove, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, milk, flour, clove, allspice, nutmeg. 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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