Name: Steamed Graham Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda; 2 teaspoons cinnamon; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; 1 cup raisins; 2 ½ cups flour

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Steamed Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix the molasses, sweet milk, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins.
Gradually add the flour and mix until combined.

Steam and serve

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for 2 ½ hours.
Serve with whipped cream, adding sugar to taste.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Nutmeg + flourtop 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

Molasses: Provides dark sweetness and moisture, and gives the pudding its characteristic color and flavor.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten.
Flour: Forms the structure of the pudding as its starches set during steaming.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

“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.