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Dessert

Raisin Pudding

A sweet pudding made with raisins, sugar, butter, flour, spices, and milk, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Raisin Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 1 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon butter in a pan over medium heat; stir until the butter melts.

  2. Add 2 cups hot water and boil for 3 minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix together 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup raisins, and 1 cup milk.

  2. Pour the mixture into the hot liquid and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 2 hours.

  3. Serve hot or cold with whipped cream.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and, dissolved in the hot water, forms the syrup that bakes beneath the batter.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the syrup, giving it a smooth, rounded flavour.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that set the batter as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so it rises and stays light.
Raisins
Add chewy pieces of concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter, helping it bake tender.

The step that matters

Pouring the batter into the hot liquid. The batter sits on top of the hot syrup and bakes into the pudding while the syrup sinks down and forms a sauce. Pour gently so the batter stays on top and the layers separate as it bakes.

“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.

More raisin pudding recipes

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