Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Molasses Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Sift the cornmeal into a large pan.
Simmer the milk and molasses together in a pot, stirring until hot.
Gradually mix the warm milk and molasses into the cornmeal.
Add the ground ginger and cinnamon, then beat the mixture well.
If the batter is too thin, add more cornmeal; if too thick, add more milk and molasses.
Prepare the cloth
Dip a large square pudding cloth in hot water.
Spread the cloth in a pan.
Dredge the cloth with flour.
Pour the pudding mixture into the cloth, tie it securely, leaving room for expansion.
Boil and serve
Place the pudding in a large pot of boiling water.
Cook for about three hours, turning it twice with a fork.
Replenish boiling water as needed, avoiding cold water to prevent hardening.
Dip the pudding in cold water.
Untie the string.
Transfer to a dish.
Serve with molasses and butter, or a sauce of drawn butter flavored with wine and nutmeg.
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.
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,928 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yellow cornmeal
- Forms the body of the pudding, setting into a firm, sliceable structure as it cooks.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the cornmeal into a pourable batter that cooks through.
- West india molasses
- Provides sweetness, dark color and a rich flavor throughout the pudding.
- Ground ginger
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the batter.
The step that matters
Keep the pot boiling with hot water. Adding cold water drops the pot's temperature and can stall cooking, causing the cornmeal pudding to harden and turn heavy. Keeping the water at a steady boil keeps the pudding cooking evenly over the long simmer.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, cinnamon, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Clovefits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, cinnamon, flour. 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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