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Dessert

Spiced Molasses Pudding

A pudding made from yellow Indian meal, milk, molasses, ginger, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Molasses Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the yellow Indian meal into a pan.

  2. Simmer the milk in a pot until boiling.

  3. Stir in the molasses while the milk is boiling.

  4. Mix the hot milk and molasses into the corn meal gradually.

  5. Add the ground ginger and powdered cinnamon.

  6. Beat the mixture well to ensure lightness.

  7. Adjust the consistency with more corn meal or milk and molasses as needed.

Boil

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding cloth and tie securely, leaving space for expansion.

  2. Boil the pudding for about three hours, replenishing water as necessary.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Yellow indian meal
Forms the body of the pudding, giving it a firm, sliceable structure as it cooks.
Milk
Hydrates the corn meal and adds moisture and softness to the finished pudding.
West india molasses
Adds sweetness, deep color and a rich flavor to the pudding.
Ground ginger
Contributes warm, spicy aroma to the pudding.
Powdered cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma that complements the molasses.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a pudding cloth and tie securely, leaving space for expansion.. Corn meal swells as it absorbs liquid and boils. If the cloth is tied too tightly or the pudding is packed too full, it can burst or cook unevenly. Leaving room lets the pudding expand safely.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, 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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