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Oatmeal Pudding

A steamed pudding made with oats, sago, eggs, dried fruit, butter, milk, cinnamon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Oats and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,394 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Oatmeal Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the Allinson breakfast oats with the soaked sago.

  2. Add the well-beaten eggs, sultanas, currants, sugar, butter, cinnamon, and milk; stir well.

  3. Butter a mold and pour the mixture into it.

Steam

  1. Cover with a cloth and steam the pudding for 3 hours.

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. Oats + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Oats + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the pudding set as it steams.
Sago
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding a soft, tender body.
Breakfast oats
Provide the bulk and a hearty, slightly chewy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the oats and sago soften.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for 3 hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the eggs and starches through without drying the pudding. Covering the mold with a cloth traps moisture so the texture stays soft rather than tough.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oats, egg, milk, cinnamon, sugar, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oats, egg, milk, cinnamon, sugar, butter. 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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