Name: Poor Man's Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sweet milk; ½ cup melted butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 pound chopped raisins; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon cloves or cinnamon; sufficient flour to make a thick batter

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Poor Man's Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine molasses, sweet milk, melted butter, baking soda, chopped raisins, salt, nutmeg, and cloves or cinnamon.
Gradually add flour until the mixture reaches the consistency of pound cake.

Cook and serve

Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.
Boil for three to four hours.
Serve with cold or hot 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.

Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a rich, deep flavor to the pudding.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Raisins: Add chewy sweetness and pockets of fruit throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the mixture reaches the consistency of pound cake. Too much flour makes the pudding dense and heavy, while too little leaves it loose and wet. Adding flour gradually lets you stop at the right thick batter consistency before it sets during boiling.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, butter, raisin, nutmeg, flour):

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, butter, raisin, nutmeg, flour. 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.

Molasses Cookies96 recipes

Molasses Cake90 recipes

Clove Cake53 recipes

Molasses Sponge Cake9 recipes

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Poor Man's Plum Pudding