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Dessert

Steamed Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, molasses, raisins, spices, and flour, served with a sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Steamed Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine suet, molasses, egg, milk, raisins, flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and the baking soda mixture in a large bowl, then mix well until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and make the sauce

  1. Steam for 3 hours.

  2. Cream together sugar, butter, and flour for the sauce.

  3. Add the beaten egg white and boiling water, stirring well, then flavor with lemon juice to taste.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark colour and a moist, rich texture.
Egg
Binds the batter so the pudding holds its structure when steamed.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and milk to lighten the pudding as it steams.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. The mold must be sealed and the water kept steadily simmering for the full time. If the water drops or the steam escapes, the pudding can turn out dense and soggy.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, milk, raisin, 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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