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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, molasses, spices, butter, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine graham flour, molasses, egg, cinnamon, mace, allspice, nutmeg, melted butter, milk, and dissolved baking soda, mixing until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a well-greased mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding for 3 hours steadily.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Forms the body of the pudding, giving it a hearty, structured crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture to the batter.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together and helps set the pudding as it steams.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the crumb.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding steadily. Steaming gently and continuously for the full time cooks the batter through without drying it. If the water boils down or the steam drops, the pudding can turn out dense or undercooked in the centre.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

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