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Dessert

Blackberry Pudding, Boiled

A boiled pudding made with flour, suet, molasses, milk, brown sugar, baking soda, and blackberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Blackberry Pudding, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water.

  2. In a bowl, mix together the suet, milk, molasses, and brown sugar.

  3. Add half of the flour, then the dissolved soda; mix well.

  4. Add the remaining flour and the blackberries; combine thoroughly.

Cook

  1. Fill a greased mold halfway with the mixture.

  2. Boil for about 1 hour until cooked through.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Blackberries
Add moisture, tartness, and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Add the dissolved baking soda with the flour. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and evenly mixed into the batter so it reacts with the acidic molasses and leavens the pudding uniformly rather than leaving dense or patchy spots.

“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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