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Dessert

Woodford Pudding

A baked pudding made with eggs, sugar, butter, sour milk, baking soda, spices, blackberry jam, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Woodford Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, and butter until well combined.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add it to the mixture.

  3. Stir in nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.

  4. Add the blackberry jam and flour, mixing until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake until set.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cinnamon + blackberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a tender structure as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, helping the pudding rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and a slight tang.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the starch and protein that give the pudding its body and structure.
Blackberry jam
Adds fruit flavour, sweetness and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before mixing spreads the reaction evenly, so the pudding rises uniformly instead of forming dense pockets or bitter patches.

Swap the blackberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, 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.

More blackberry pudding recipes

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