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Dessert

Persimmon Pudding

A baked pudding made with persimmons, eggs, buttermilk, molasses, sugar, butter or lard, spice, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Persimmon 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.

Prepare

  1. Wash the persimmons and remove the seeds.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the persimmons, eggs, buttermilk, molasses, sugar, butter or lard, spice, and enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, stirring occasionally to ensure even baking.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Persimmon + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Persimmons
Provide the main fruit body, sweetness and moisture to the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set it into a firm, custard-like structure as it bakes.
Flour
Gives the stiff batter its body so the pudding holds together rather than running.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and mild acidity, tenderising the crumb.
Butter or lard
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Stirring while baking. Stirring during baking helps the pudding cook evenly and keeps the fruit from settling, while the eggs and flour set the structure.

Swap the persimmon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Persimmonthe original

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