Why it works: Molasses and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Blackberry Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Warm the molasses in a saucepan.
Dissolve the baking soda in the warm molasses.
Add the flour to the molasses mixture, then gently fold in the blackberries.
Prepare the mold
Butter a pudding mold or tin basin.
Pour the mixture into the prepared mold.
Steam and serve
Set the mold in a steamer over a kettle of boiling water and steam for 1 hour.
Serve with hard sauce.
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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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 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
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark, rich flavor, and provides the acid that reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses acid to release gas, which lifts and lightens the pudding.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the pudding as it steams.
- Blackberries
- Add moisture, fruity flavor and color to the pudding.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the warm molasses. Baking soda reacts with the acid in molasses to release carbon dioxide, which lifts the pudding. Dissolving it fully in the molasses before adding flour spreads the reaction evenly, so the pudding rises uniformly instead of forming dense or patchy spots.
“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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