Skip to main content
Dessert

Molasses Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, sugar, raisins, currants, molasses, eggs, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Molasses Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, suet, sugar, raisins, currants, molasses, eggs, cream of tartar, baking soda, and milk.

  2. Mix well until all ingredients are combined. Season with ground cloves and nutmeg to taste.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 3 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it sets.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep, rich flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm during steaming.
Cream of tartar
Acidic component that reacts with baking soda to help the pudding rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lightens the texture.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming must be gentle and steady, with the mold kept sealed and water topped up, so the pudding cooks evenly through. Uneven or interrupted steam can leave it soggy or undercooked in the center.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, raisin, molasses, egg, cream, milk. 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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipes