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Dessert

Steamed Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, raisins, molasses, and a nutmeg sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Steamed Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg, molasses, sweet milk, butter, baking soda, cream of tartar, grated nutmeg, and Graham flour.

  2. Dredge the raisins in the wheat flour and fold them into the mixture.

Steam the pudding

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold and steam for 2 hours.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, combine sugar, butter, and flour in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Gradually add boiling water, stirring until thickened, then add grated nutmeg.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the batter and gives the pudding its structure as it sets.
Orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the pudding crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Cream of tartar
Acts with the baking soda to leaven the batter and adds slight acidity.
Graham flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding and contributes a nutty, coarse texture.

The step that matters

Dredge the raisins in wheat flour before folding. Coating the raisins in flour helps them stay suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom during steaming, so they distribute evenly through the pudding.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, raisin, milk, butter, cream, flour. 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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