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Dessert

Plain Steamed Pudding

A steamed pudding made with cornmeal, Graham flour, molasses, baking soda, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plain Steamed Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, Graham flour, molasses, baking soda, and sour milk, and mix until well combined.

  2. Add coarse sea salt to taste.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for about 2 hours until set.

  3. Serve warm.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Cornmeal
Forms the bulk of the pudding and gives it its coarse, hearty texture.
Graham flour
Adds structure and a nutty, wholesome flavor to the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.

The step that matters

Steam until set. Steaming gently and for the full time lets the starch and batter proteins set into a firm pudding. Lifting the lid too early or steaming too briskly can leave the center wet and collapsed.

“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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