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Dessert

Boiled Molasses Fuddinq

A steamed pudding made with molasses, butter, milk, raisins, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Boiled Molasses Fuddinq

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk.

  2. Sift the cream of tartar into the flour.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the butter, molasses, milk, raisins, and flour mixture.

  2. Add spices and salt if using, and mix well.

Boil and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold and boil for four hours.

  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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb while carrying flavour through the pudding.
Molasses
Provides dark colour, moisture and a deep, sweet, slightly bitter flavour.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in molasses and cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with baking soda to help the pudding rise.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a mold and boil for four hours.. The mold must be sealed and the water kept boiling steadily for the full time, since the pudding cooks through gentle steam. Letting the water drop lowers the heat and leaves the centre underset.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, milk, flour, cream. 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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