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Dessert

Dry Ginger Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs or raisins, suet, sugar, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, spices, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Dry Ginger Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix all the ingredients together.

  2. Pack the mixture into a well-greased bowl.

  3. Tie a white cloth over the top of the bowl.

Steam

  1. Place the bowl in a large pan half full of boiling water.

  2. Cover the pan and boil for three hours.

  3. Keep the water level within one inch of the top of the bowl, ensuring no liquid enters 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  5. Fig + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pudding moist as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking to lighten the pudding.
Figs or raisins
Add chewy sweetness and fruit flavour throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water level steady. The pudding steams gently in the water bath. If the water drops below the rim of the pan or splashes into the bowl, the pudding can become waterlogged or uneven, so the level must be checked during the full three hours of boiling.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Applefits less well

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