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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with Graham flour, wheat flour, molasses, sweet milk, egg, raisins, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Warm the molasses and add the baking soda, stirring well.

  2. Sift the Graham flour and wheat flour together, then gradually add to the molasses mixture.

  3. Add the sweet milk and beaten egg, mixing until smooth.

  4. Fold in the stewed raisins.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered basin or pudding mold.

  2. Set the basin in a steamer over a kettle of hot water and steam for 2 hours.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Wheat + raisintop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Provides the coarse, hearty structure and nutty flavor of the pudding.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten that gives the pudding body and holds its shape when steamed.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness to the batter.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flours and loosens the batter into a smooth mixture.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set firm as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the molasses. Baking soda needs an acid to react; molasses supplies it. Stirring the soda in thoroughly spreads the reaction evenly so the pudding rises uniformly rather than in pockets.

“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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