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Dessert

Gingerbread Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, treacle, eggs, milk, ginger, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Gingerbread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, suet, ginger, baking powder, and salt together.

  2. Add the milk, treacle, and beaten eggs, and mix thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased mold or basin.

  2. Steam for 2.5 to 3 hours.

  3. Serve with a suitable 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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure as the starch sets during steaming.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender as it cooks.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color and flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm when heated.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking, helping the pudding rise and become light.
Ground ginger
Adds warm spice aroma and flavor to the pudding.

The step that matters

Greasing the mold. A well-greased mold keeps the soft, sticky batter from clinging to the sides, so the pudding releases cleanly when turned out.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, 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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