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Dessert

New England Cracker Pudding

A baked pudding made from milk, butter, soda crackers, eggs, sugar, spices, molasses, raisins, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

New England Cracker Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the mixture

  1. Scald the milk in a pot.

  2. Add the rolled soda crackers to the milk and let it cool.

  3. Once cool, mix in the beaten eggs and the remaining ingredients in the order listed.

  4. Chop the raisins before adding them to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 5 hours in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base and provides moisture that softens the crackers and sets gently when baked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during slow baking to give the pudding its firm, sliceable body.
Soda crackers
Absorb the milk and thicken the mixture, giving the pudding its body and a mild, starchy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface during long baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep colour and a rich, treacly flavour that deepens over long baking.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the texture and carries the spice flavours through the pudding.

The step that matters

Cool the crackers and milk before adding the eggs. Eggs added to very hot milk can scramble and turn grainy instead of blending smoothly. Cooling first lets the eggs thicken the custard evenly as it bakes.

Swap the clove

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

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

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