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Dessert

Graham Pudding

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

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

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix graham flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. In another bowl, dissolve baking soda in milk, then add molasses and egg.

  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then fold in the raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased mold.

  2. Steam for three hours.

  3. Serve with cream or custard sauce.

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. Cinnamon + raisintop 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 the coarse, nutty structure of the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and milk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and the characteristic deep flavour.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the pudding as it steams.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and dissolves the baking soda into the batter.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the milk before adding molasses and egg. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and evenly distributed so it reacts with the acidic molasses and lifts the batter evenly rather than leaving dense or bitter spots.

Swap the clove

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

  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, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, molasses, egg, raisin. 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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