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Dessert

Gingerbread Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, sugar, eggs, spices, butter, flour, milk, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Gingerbread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix molasses, sugar, eggs, baking soda dissolved in a little water, cloves, cinnamon, and melted butter.

  2. Gradually add flour and sweet milk, mixing until smooth. Fold in the raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold and steam for 2 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Molasses
Adds dark colour, deep flavour and moisture to the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help give the pudding its set structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Melted butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the pudding.
Sweet milk
Moistens the flour and loosens the batter to a smooth consistency.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold and steam for 2 hours.. Steaming cooks the batter gently and keeps it moist. The mold must be well greased so the pudding releases cleanly, and the steam must be kept steady for the full time so the pudding sets through.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, egg, cinnamon, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, egg, cinnamon, butter, flour, 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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