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Dessert

Steamed Pudding

A steamed pudding made from bread crumbs, molasses, egg, water, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Steamed Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, molasses, beaten egg, cold water, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, allspice, and salt. Mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam

  1. Cover the mold with a lid or foil. Steam for 3 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the starchy base that soaks up liquid and gives the pudding its body.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and deep sweetness with a robust flavor.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set into a firm, cohesive texture when cooked.
Flour
Adds structure and thickens the batter so it holds its shape while steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of molasses to produce gas that lightens the texture.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the batter through without drying it out. The mold must be sealed so steam stays in, keeping the pudding moist and evenly set.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, molasses, egg, flour, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, molasses, egg, flour, cinnamon, allspice. 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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