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Dessert

Steamed Pudding

A steamed pudding made with all-purpose and rye flour, raisins, molasses, sugar, milk, 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 allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Steamed Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine all-purpose flour, rye flour, baking soda, sugar, molasses, ground cinnamon, and allspice in a large bowl.

  2. Stir in the milk and raisins until well mixed.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam

  1. Cover the mold with a lid or foil and steam for 3 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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rye + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 of the pudding as it sets.
Rye flour
Adds a denser, more earthy texture and flavor to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, sweet flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and sugar to form a pourable batter.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam the mold with a tight seal. A loose lid lets steam escape and the water level drop, so the pudding can dry out or cook unevenly over the long steaming time.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, raisin, rye, milk, sugar, molasses, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, rye, milk, sugar, molasses, cinnamon. 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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