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Dessert

Graham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with graham flour, butter, raisins, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine sour or buttermilk, butter, raisins, molasses, and sugar.

  2. Mix in graham flour, white flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and egg until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into baking powder cans or a loaf pan.

  2. Steam for the appropriate time 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Provides the wholesome, nutty body and structure that gives the pudding its character.
White flour
Builds structure so the batter sets firm enough to hold its shape after steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to produce gas that lifts and lightens the pudding.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and a dark color to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the texture and keeps the pudding moist.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, butter, raisin, molasses, sugar, flour, cinnamon. 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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