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Dessert

Ginger-bread Pudding

A baked pudding made with molasses, milk, flour, butter or lard, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ginger-bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix together the molasses, cinnamon, dripping, and salt.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the molasses mixture.

  4. Gradually add the flour and then stir in the vinegar.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into shallow pans to a depth of 1 inch.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides dark sweetness, moisture, and the characteristic gingerbread flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the vinegar and milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps hydrate the flour while the batter is mixed.
Vinegar
Acidifies the batter so the baking soda reacts and helps the pudding rise.
Dripping
Adds fat that contributes tenderness and richness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the milk before adding it. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed so it reacts with the acid in the batter. Uneven distribution leaves dense pockets or bitter patches and uneven rising.

“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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