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Dessert

Brown Flour Pudding

A steamed pudding made with Graham flour, sweet milk, molasses, raisins, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brown Flour Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the Graham flour, sweet milk, Orleans molasses, chopped raisins, beaten eggs, and baking soda, and mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding until cooked through.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Graham flour
Forms the bulk of the pudding's structure and gives it a hearty, slightly nutty texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm as the pudding cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Orleans molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, deep flavor.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter pour and cook evenly.

The step that matters

Steam until cooked through. Steaming cooks the pudding gently with moist heat, so the center sets without drying out. Undercooking leaves the eggs and flour wet and dense, while overcooking makes the texture tough.

“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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