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Dessert

Steamed Barley Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, cornmeal, barley flour, raisins, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Steamed Barley Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  2. Add molasses, sour milk, and baking soda dissolved in a little water to the egg.

  3. Sift together the cornmeal and barley flour, then combine with the wet mixture.

  4. Fold in the chopped raisins.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into well-greased pudding molds.

  2. Steam for 2 hours.

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. Barley + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together57 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk and molasses to lift the batter and lighten its crumb.
Barley flour
Provides the main structure of the pudding along with the cornmeal.
Cornmeal
Adds body and a coarser, tender texture to the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and deepens the flavor.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the pudding rise.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda before adding it. Baking soda must be fully dissolved in water so it spreads evenly through the batter. Undissolved pockets react unevenly, leaving dense spots or bitter patches in the finished pudding.

“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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