Name: Blackberry Pudding or Other Berries
Ingredients: 1 ½ pints sifted flour; 1 ½ pints fresh berries; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ½ cup sweet milk; ¾ cup syrup or molasses; Butter for greasing

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Blackberry Pudding or Other Berries

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix a little flour with the fresh berries.
In another bowl, combine the remaining flour, salt, and baking soda dissolved in sweet milk.
Add syrup or molasses to the mixture and stir until smooth.
Gently fold in the berries, being careful not to break them.
Grease a mold and pour in the batter.

Steam and serve

Place the mold in boiling water, ensuring the water does not reach the top.
Boil continuously for at least 2 hours.
Serve with boiled 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,540 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + syruptop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,143 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Fresh berries: Add moisture, flavor, and color throughout the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic syrup or molasses to lighten the batter.
Sweet milk: Moistens the batter and dissolves the baking soda evenly.
Syrup or molasses: Adds sweetness and depth of flavor, and darkens the pudding.

The step that matters

Fold in the berries gently. Breaking the berries releases their juice into the batter, making it wet and streaked. Folding keeps the berries whole and the batter evenly textured.

“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.

More blackberry pudding recipes

Molasses 4 Steamed 4 Boiled 3 See all 87 →

Oranges in Syrup9 recipes

Syrup Sauce6 recipes

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Blackberry Pudding or Other Berries