Skip to main content
Dessert

Nut Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sweet milk, suet, raisins, molasses, walnuts, figs, nutmeg, baking soda, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Nut Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a large bowl, mix sweet milk, chopped suet, seeded raisins, molasses, chopped walnuts, chopped figs, grated nutmeg, baking soda, flour, and salt until thoroughly combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold and steam for 3 hours.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, beat the butter in a bowl until waxy.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

  3. Stir in cream and vanilla extract, then place the bowl in hot water.

  4. Stir until the sauce is creamy and smooth.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during steaming.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Walnut meats
Add texture and richness through their natural oils.
Butter
Gives the sauce body, richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce over hot water until creamy and smooth. Butter and sugar beaten together can look grainy or separate if overheated or chilled. Gentle warming while stirring lets the butter soften evenly and emulsify with the cream, giving a smooth sauce.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, raisin, molasses, meat, fig, nutmeg, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, raisin, molasses, meat, fig, nutmeg, flour. 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.

More nut pudding recipes

Cocoa 13Grape 4Hickory 4Steamed 3 See all 25 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipes