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Dessert

Steamed Pudding

A sweet fruit pudding steamed for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the milk and molasses, mixing well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and spices.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.

  5. Fold in the eggs and fruit.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. Serve with a liquid 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the pudding richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps cream the butter to trap air for lightness.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding as the batter sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as they set.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, slightly acidic flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the batter through without drying it. Water must stay at a steady simmer, since low or uneven heat leaves the centre underset and a dense texture.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

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