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Dessert

Ginger Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, beef suet, ginger, baking powder, salt, treacle, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Ginger Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, suet, ginger, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Stir in the treacle and milk until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased basin and cover with greased paper.

  2. Steam the pudding for 2 hours.

  3. Serve with custard.

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. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the pudding rises and stays light.
Treacle
Adds sweetness and a deep, rich flavour, and contributes moisture.
Ground ginger
Gives the pudding its characteristic warm, spicy aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for 2 hours. Steaming must stay gentle and continuous so the batter cooks through evenly and stays moist. If the water boils dry or the basin is sealed poorly, the pudding can turn dense or soggy.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, beef, molasses, milk. 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.

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