Skip to main content
Dessert

Steamed Carrot Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated carrot, potato, bread crumbs, suet, molasses, raisins, currants, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Steamed Carrot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the carrot and potato.

  2. In a bowl, combine the grated carrot, grated potato, and bread crumbs.

  3. Sift the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour together.

Mix and steam

  1. Add the suet, molasses, and dredged fruit to the mixture.

  2. Mix well and pour into a well-buttered mold.

  3. Steam for four 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together981 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it sets during steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep sweetness.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Grated carrot
Contributes moisture and body to the pudding's texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs liquid and helps give the pudding a tender, soft crumb.

The step that matters

Steaming for four hours. Steam must be kept steady and the water topped up, since a steady, gentle heat cooks the pudding through evenly and sets its crumb without drying it out or leaving it dense.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, carrot, potato, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, molasses):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, carrot, potato, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, molasses. 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

Orange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesDeep-Fried Potato BallsDeep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipes