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Black Pudding

A sweet pudding made with bread crumbs, flour, raisins, molasses, and spices, steamed until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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. Mix together the bread crumbs, flour, hot water, butter, eggs, baking soda, salt, raisins, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and molasses until well combined.

Steam and serve

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

  2. 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
Flour
Provides the main structure for the pudding's body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the texture and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and deep sweetness.

The step that matters

Steam for 2 hours until cooked through. Steaming gently and evenly heats the dense batter so the eggs and starches set throughout. Checking that the center is fully cooked prevents a wet, under-set interior.

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.

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