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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, raisins, and spices, sweetened with sugar and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, egg, and milk until well combined.

  2. Add the salt, baking soda, graham flour, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, then mix thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 3 hours until cooked through.

  3. Serve warm with plain sauces or the rich sauce below.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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, slightly bitter sweetness.
Graham flour
Forms the bulk of the structure, giving the pudding its body and a nutty texture.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the pudding as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam until cooked through. Steaming gently and for the full time sets the egg and starch slowly, so the pudding becomes firm and moist rather than dense or wet in the centre. Lifting the lid too often lets steam escape and cools the mold, which can stall cooking.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, egg, milk, flour, raisin, cinnamon. 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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