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Dessert

Amherst Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, milk, suet, molasses, fruit, and spices, boiled for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Amherst Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ground cloves, and allspice.

  2. In another bowl, mix the milk, suet, and molasses.

Make the pudding

  1. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until well combined.

  2. Fold in the fruit.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.

Cook

  1. Boil for three hours, ensuring the water level remains consistent.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acid to produce gas that helps the pudding rise.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps bind the batter together.

The step that matters

Keep the boiling water level consistent. If the water drops and the mold is exposed, the pudding cooks unevenly and can dry out. Steady, gentle heat cooks the batter through evenly over the full three hours.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

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