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Preserve

Gingerbread Pudding

A steamed gingerbread pudding made with flour, baking powder, ginger, margarine, treacle, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and molasses 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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and ground ginger.

  2. Rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

  3. Add the treacle and beaten egg, and mix until combined.

Boil and serve

  1. Flour a cloth, place the mixture in the center, and tie it securely.

  2. Boil in a pot of water for 1 hour.

  3. Serve with butter 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. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ginger + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,337 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 of the pudding.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Margarine
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Treacle
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich molasses flavour, and keeps the pudding moist.
Egg
Binds the mixture and adds structure as it sets.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth. The cloth must be floured and tied firmly so the mixture holds its shape and does not leak or swell too loosely in the boiling water. Water must also stay at a steady boil for the full hour so the pudding cooks evenly through.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, egg. 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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