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Dessert

Alma Pudding

A steamed pudding made with eggs, rum, flour, sugar, jam, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Alma Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs well and add the rum.

  2. Mix the eggs and rum with the other ingredients until well combined.

  3. Butter a basin or mold and pour in the mixture.

  4. Cover the top with buttered paper.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the mold in a saucepan with boiling water, ensuring the water reaches halfway up the mold.

  2. Steam gently for 2 hours, adding more boiling water as needed.

  3. Turn the pudding out onto a hot dish and pour a sweet sauce over it before serving.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rum + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and provide structure as the pudding sets.
Flour
Forms the body of the pudding so it holds its shape when steamed.
Baking soda
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to browning at the surface.
Butter
Greases the mold so the pudding releases cleanly and adds richness.

The step that matters

Steaming gently with enough water. Steam gently and keep the water level topped up. Boiling too hard or letting the water run low can make the pudding cook unevenly, turning the outside tough or leaving the centre underdone. A steady, gentle heat sets the eggs and flour evenly.

“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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