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Dessert

Graham Pudding

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

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 ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine graham flour, molasses, milk, chopped raisins, egg, baking soda mixture, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam

  1. Steam for 3 hours until cooked through.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Provides the bulk and structure of the pudding, with its coarse bran giving a hearty texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and contributes to the pudding's rich flavour.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the pudding as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time. Steaming gently and for the full time lets the batter cook through evenly. Lifting the lid or letting the water boil dry can leave the pudding uneven or underdone in the centre.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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

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