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Dessert

Coffee Pudding

A steamed pudding made with brown sugar, lard, molasses, eggs, coffee, spices, flour, raisins, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Coffee Pudding

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Coffee Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together brown sugar, lard, and molasses until well combined.

  2. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in hot coffee and add to the mixture.

  4. Stir in cinnamon, cloves, flour, salt, and raisins until just combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 2.5 hours until set.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist, rich crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the hot coffee. Baking soda needs moisture and an acid such as molasses to react and leaven the batter. Dissolving it fully in the hot coffee before adding it spreads the reaction evenly, so the pudding rises uniformly instead of leaving dense or soapy pockets.

Swap the clove

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

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

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