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Dessert

Steamed Spice Pudding

A steamed pudding made with egg, brown sugar, molasses, coffee, flour, spices, butter, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Steamed Spice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the beaten egg, brown sugar, molasses, and cold coffee.

  2. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, ground cloves, and ground cinnamon.

  3. Slowly add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring until combined.

  4. Fold in the melted butter and floured raisins.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased, tightly covered mold.

  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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and coffee to lighten the batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich, slightly acidic sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps give a soft, tender crumb.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Steam in a tightly covered mold. A tight cover keeps steam trapped around the batter so it cooks evenly and stays moist. If steam escapes, the pudding can dry out and cook unevenly.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

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