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Dessert

Whortleberry Pudding

A pudding made from whortleberries, molasses, milk, flour, spices, and baking soda, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Whortleberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a large pot, combine the whortleberries, molasses, and milk.

  2. Add the baking soda, flour, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and mix well.

  3. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer.

Cook

  1. Cook for 2.5 hours, stirring occasionally.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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

Whortleberries
Provide the fruit body and moisture, and colour the pudding as they break down.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and helps the pudding brown during long cooking.
Flour
Provides the structure that thickens the mixture as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the texture and help it rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and softens the flour into a smooth batter.

The step that matters

Simmering with occasional stirring. Flour and fruit can settle and scorch on the bottom of the pot during a long simmer. Stirring keeps the mixture even and lets the flour cook through fully.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, 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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