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Dessert

Webster Pudding

A sweet pudding made with molasses, milk, butter, wine or brandy, raisins, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Webster Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Warm the milk and dissolve the baking soda in it, then add the molasses.

  2. Mix the dry ingredients together and add them to the milk and molasses.

  3. Thicken the mixture with flour until a stiff batter forms.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the pudding into a well-floured bag.

  2. Boil for three hours and serve.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, sweet flavor to the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and warm milk to lighten the pudding as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the mixture into a stiff batter that holds its shape while boiling.
Raisins or currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a tender, moist texture.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour until a stiff batter forms. Too little flour leaves the pudding loose and wet, so it may not hold together when boiled in a bag. Adding flour gradually and checking for a stiff consistency helps the pudding set firmly as it cooks.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, butter, wine, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, butter, wine, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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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