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Dessert

Graham Flour Pudding

A steamed or boiled pudding made from graham flour, sweet milk, molasses, currants or raisins, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Graham Flour Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine Graham flour, sweet milk, molasses, currants or raisins, baking powder, and salt, and mix until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a shape (mold).

Cook and serve

  1. Boil or steam for three hours.

  2. Serve with foam 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 + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Molasses + curranttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,817 recipes
  5. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 body of the pudding, providing structure as the batter sets.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich, moist texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter, giving the pudding a lighter crumb.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture to the batter.
Currants or raisins
Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keeping the mold sealed while steaming. Steaming for three hours keeps the pudding moist. If water seeps into the mold or the steam escapes, the pudding can turn soggy or dry unevenly. A tightly covered mold holds steady heat and moisture.

Swap the currant

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

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

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