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Dessert

Date Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, suet, milk, flour, eggs, dates, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix together the molasses, suet, spices, and chopped dates.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in 1 tablespoon of hot water and mix it with the milk.

  3. Add the milk mixture to the other ingredients.

  4. Beat the eggs until light and stir them into the mixture.

  5. Add the flour and beat thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter 2 small or 1 large brown‑bread mold.

  2. Pour the mixture into the mold(s) and steam for 5 hours.

  3. Serve with creamy or wine 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + datestop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a moist, rich colour to the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the batter as it steams.
Dates
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming for the full time. Steaming gently and for the full time cooks the dense batter through evenly. Lifting the lid or letting the water boil low can leave the centre heavy or undercooked, and the pudding needs steady moist heat to set.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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