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Dessert

Honey-comb Pudding

A steamed pudding made with buttermilk, suet, sugar, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Honey-comb Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine buttermilk, suet, sugar, beaten egg, molasses, and raisins.

  2. In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

  3. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 1 hour.

  3. Serve warm with vanilla 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a rich, deep flavor.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Beaten egg
Binds the batter and helps give it structure as it sets.

The step that matters

Stirring in the dry ingredients. Once flour meets the wet mixture, gluten begins to form, and overmixing makes the pudding tough. Stir just until combined, and add the baking soda's acid-activated lift promptly before it fades.

“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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