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 ↓
Currant Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sweet milk and molasses.
Add currants or raisins, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon, then mix well.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Serve warm with butter or wine sauce.
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.
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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the starch and proteins that set into the pudding's crumb structure as it bakes.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color and flavor to the pudding.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that lifts the pudding.
- Cream of tartar
- Supplies acidity that reacts with baking soda, helping the pudding rise and giving a tangy note.
- Currants or raisins
- Add chewy texture and pockets of concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and helps hydrate the flour so the batter forms a cohesive mixture.
The step that matters
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Heat sets the flour's starches and proteins into a firm crumb. Pulling the pudding early leaves the center wet and gummy, so the toothpick test confirms it has fully set.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, molasses, flour, cream, allspice, clove, cinnamon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, flour, cream, allspice, clove, cinnamon. 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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