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Dessert

Steam Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sour milk, molasses, butter, flour, spices, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Steam Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the sour milk, molasses, and melted butter.

  2. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves.

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

  4. Fold in the raisins.

Steam

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Cover and steam for 3 hours.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas that lightens the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and adds a tangy note that balances the sweetness.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, moisture, and a deep flavor.
Butter
Adds fat that gives a tender crumb and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Cover and steam for 3 hours. The mold must be tightly covered so steam cooks the batter evenly and keeps it moist. Lifting the lid or letting steam escape can dry the outside and leave the center underdone.

Swap the clove

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

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

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