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Dessert

Black and White Pudding

A steamed pudding made with egg yolks, molasses, flour, water, raisins, confectioners’ sugar, butter, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Black and White Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks until light, then add the molasses.

  2. Sift the flour and baking soda together, then add to the mixture alternately with the warm water.

  3. Fold in the raisins, currants, or chopped dates if desired.

Steam

  1. Place the mixture in individual cups or one mold and steam until cooked through.

Sauce and serving

  1. Cream together the confectioners’ sugar and butter until frothy.

  2. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites, then chill before serving.

  3. Serve the pudding hot with the 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 structure that hold the pudding together after steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to produce gas that lifts and lightens the batter.
Dark molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly acidic sweetness.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter into a tender, cohesive crumb.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air that gives the pudding a lighter texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the creamed sugar mixture smooth and rich in flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only until they are overmixed or deflated. Fold gently with a broad motion so the air stays trapped, which keeps the pudding light rather than dense.

“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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