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Dessert

Wholemeal Banana Pudding

A steamed pudding made with wholemeal, sago, bananas, sugar, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,470 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Wholemeal Banana Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the bananas and mash them with a fork.

  2. Soak the sago in ½ cup of water, either in the oven or in a saucepan.

Make the batter

  1. Make a batter with the eggs, wheatmeal, and milk.

  2. Add the mashed bananas, sugar, and soaked sago to the batter and mix until smooth.

Steam

  1. Turn the mixture into a greased mold and steam the pudding for 2 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. Banana + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Banana + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,102 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Fine wheatmeal
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it cooks and sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable texture.
Sago
Soaked sago swells and adds body and a soft, tender texture.
Bananas
Add moisture, natural sweetness, and banana flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the banana flavour.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for the full 2 hours. Gentle, steady steam cooks the batter evenly and sets the eggs and starch. Cutting the time short leaves the centre wet and loose, so the pudding may not hold its shape.

Swap the banana

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

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

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