Name: Fruit Pudding Steamed
Ingredients: 1 cup cooked blackberries; 1 cup sour cream; 1 to 2 cups molasses; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 egg; flour to make a medium stiff batter

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fruit Pudding Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Combine cooked blackberries, sour cream, molasses, baking soda, butter, and egg in a bowl, then mix well until combined.
Add flour gradually until you achieve a medium stiff batter.

Steam

Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.
Steam for the recommended time until cooked through.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Blackberries: Provide fruit flavor, moisture and color to the pudding.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, deep flavor.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Butter: Adds richness and tenderness to the batter.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it cooks.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Flour should be added gradually so the batter reaches a medium stiff consistency. Too much flour at once can make the pudding dense, while too little leaves it loose and wet.

“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.

Molasses Cookies96 recipes

Molasses Cake90 recipes

Molasses Sponge Cake9 recipes

White Cake431 recipes

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Fruit Pudding Steamed