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Dessert

Black Pudding

A steamed molasses and flour pudding with a sweet butter and vanilla sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Black Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine molasses, warm water, egg, flour, and baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Mix until smooth, then pour into a steaming dish.

Steam

  1. Steam for 1 hour.

Make the creamed mixture

  1. Cream sugar and butter together until well combined.

  2. Add beaten egg and vanilla, then beat until light and fluffy.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 sweetness, moisture, dark color, and a deep flavor, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set its structure while adding richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, when creamed with butter, helps make it light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and traps air when creamed.

The step that matters

Steaming for the full hour. Steam heats the batter gently, so it rises and sets evenly without drying out. If the water boils dry or the dish is left uncovered, the cake can turn out dense and uneven.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Datesfits less well

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