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Dessert

Golden Syrup Pudding

A steamed pudding made with golden syrup, wholemeal flour, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Golden Syrup Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a pudding basin.

  2. Pour the golden syrup into the basin.

  3. In a bowl, mix the milk, wholemeal flour, and eggs to make a batter.

  4. Pour the batter into the pudding basin over the syrup without stirring.

  5. Cover the batter with a piece of buttered paper.

  6. Tie a cloth over the basin or use a fitting metal lid.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding in boiling water for 2½ hours, ensuring no water enters the pudding.

  2. Before serving, dip the basin in cold water for 1 minute to help release the pudding.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,540 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

Wholemeal flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as the batter sets.
Eggs
Set as they cook, giving the batter structure and a firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that turns the flour and eggs into a pourable batter and keeps the crumb moist.
Golden syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and softens into a syrupy layer at the base of the pudding.

The step that matters

Keeping water out during steaming. If boiling water seeps under the cloth or lid, it dilutes the batter and makes the pudding soggy. A tight seal keeps the steam gentle and the texture light.

“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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