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Dessert

Molasses Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, butter, and eggs, topped with a sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Molasses Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses, hot water, melted butter, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  3. Steam for 1½ hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, combine sugar, butter, egg yolk, cornstarch, and boiling water in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until thickened, then fold in the beaten egg white before serving.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 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

Molasses
Provides the dark color, rich flavor and moisture of the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb in the pudding and sauce.
Egg yolk
Thickens the sauce and adds richness as it cooks.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and glossy when cooked.
Egg white
Folded in at the end to lighten the sauce's texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the sauce until thickened. Cornstarch and egg yolk thicken only when heated enough, but overheating can curdle the yolk or leave the sauce lumpy. Stir steadily and remove from heat once it coats a spoon.

“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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