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Dessert

Plain Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, cream, butter, egg, raisins, spices, and flour.

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

Plain Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses, heavy cream, melted butter, and egg.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in a little milk and add to the mixture.

  3. Stir in raisins, citron, cinnamon, nutmeg, and enough flour to form a stiff batter.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 1.5 hours.

  3. Serve with 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 a rich, moist, deep flavour to the pudding.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps give the cooked pudding its set structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with molasses acidity to lighten the batter and aid rising.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch structure that holds the stiff batter together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolve baking soda in milk before adding. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it mixes evenly; clumps can leave pockets of bitter residue and uneven rising in the pudding.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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

More plain pudding recipes

Sauce 16 See all 8 →

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