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Dessert

Baltimore Pudding

A steamed molasses pudding with raisins, suet, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Baltimore Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat together the molasses, suet, raisins, and spices.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and stir it into the mixture.

  3. Gradually add the flour and mix until smooth.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for at least 5 hours; it can be steamed longer for better flavor.

  3. Serve with wine 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, sweet flavor to the batter.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long steaming.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Raisins
Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming time. Steaming for too short a time leaves the dense batter gummy and underset, since the flour and starches need prolonged moist heat to fully set. The record notes longer steaming improves flavor, so keeping the water at a steady simmer and checking the water level matters.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, raisin, flour, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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