Skip to main content
Dessert

Graham Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Prepare

  1. Melt the butter, then add the molasses, milk, and lightly beaten egg.

  2. Mix and sift the dry ingredients, then add the dates.

  3. Combine the dry mixture with the wet mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Turn the batter into a buttered pudding mold, cover, and steam for 2½ hours.

  2. Serve with vanilla 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + datestop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 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

Graham flour
Provides the bulk and the structure of the pudding.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Steam the batter in a covered mold. Steaming in a sealed mold keeps the moisture in so the pudding cooks evenly and stays moist. Letting water in or lifting the lid can make the surface dry or the texture uneven.

Swap the dates

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, cinnamon, milk, clove, egg, flour. 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.

More graham pudding recipes

Steamed 22Apple 3 See all 149 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipes