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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, dates, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter in a bowl and add the molasses, milk, and lightly beaten egg.

  2. In another bowl, mix and sift the dry ingredients: graham flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.

  3. Add the dates to the dry mixture, then combine with the wet ingredients.

Steam and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a buttered pudding mold, cover it, and steam for two and a half hours.

  2. Serve with Vanilla 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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + datestop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Provides the bulk and the hearty, slightly nutty structure of the pudding.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set as it steams.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Dates
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.

The step that matters

Steam for the full two and a half hours. Steaming gently cooks the batter through with steady moisture, so the pudding sets evenly and stays moist. Cutting the time short leaves the centre dense and underset.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Datesthe original

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