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Dessert

Steamed Graham Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Steamed Graham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix graham flour, milk, molasses, egg, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda dissolved in water.

  2. Flour the raisins and fold them into the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pan and steam for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with fairy butter or wine 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Graham flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding and gives it a hearty, slightly nutty body.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Raisins
Add pockets of chewy sweetness; flouring them helps keep them spread through the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in water before mixing. Baking soda needs to be evenly dispersed in the batter so it reacts with the acidic molasses and rises uniformly. Clumps can leave dense spots or bitter pockets.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, molasses, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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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