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Dessert

Blue-stocking Pudding

A steamed or boiled pudding made with butter, molasses, milk, baking soda, eggs, raisins, citron, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Blue-stocking Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the butter, molasses, milk, baking soda, and eggs until well combined.

  2. Stir in the raisins, citron, and spices.

  3. Add flour gradually until the mixture is as thick as pound cake batter.

Cook and serve

  1. Steam or boil the pudding for 5 hours.

  2. Serve with wine 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. 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

Butter
Adds richness and a tender, moist crumb to the pudding.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep flavour to the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help give the pudding structure as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acid to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Flour
Provides the structure that turns the mixture into a thick, set pudding.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Flour must be added slowly so it mixes evenly without lumps, and the batter should reach the thickness of pound cake batter. Too little flour leaves the pudding loose and wet, while too much makes it dense and tough.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, milk, egg, clove, cinnamon, 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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