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Dessert

Whortleberry Pudding

A sweet pudding made with whortleberries, molasses, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Whortleberry Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Stir together the whortleberries, molasses, milk, baking soda, flour, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold with a closely fitting cover.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 2.5 hours or steam in the mold without a cover.

  2. Turn out and serve hot with lemon sauce.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Whortleberries
Provide the main fruit flavor and moisture throughout the pudding.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, deep flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Milk
Moistens the flour and helps form a tender, cohesive batter.

The step that matters

Keeping the mold covered or steaming correctly. The pudding must cook in steady, moist heat. Boiling or steaming in a tightly covered mold keeps the surface from drying out and sets the crumb evenly. Letting water enter the mold or letting steam escape unevenly can leave the texture soggy or dense.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, cinnamon, 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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