Skip to main content
Dessert

Black Pudding

A steamed sweet pudding made with bread crumbs, flour, raisins, molasses, spices, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Black Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, flour, hot water, butter, eggs, baking soda, salt, raisins, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and molasses until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased mold or pan.

Steam

  1. Steam for 2 hours until cooked through.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together as it steams.
Flour
Adds structure, helping the pudding set firm rather than collapsing into a wet mass.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as the heat cooks the proteins.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lightens the texture.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep sweetness with a slight acidity.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for 2 hours until cooked through. Steam keeps the pudding moist while the eggs and starch set gradually. Cutting the time short leaves a gummy, undercooked centre, so the pudding should be tested for firmness before removing it from the heat.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, flour, butter, egg, nutmeg, clove, allspice):

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Lemonfits less well
  4. Vanillafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, flour, butter, egg, nutmeg, clove, allspice. 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes