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Dessert

Woodford Pudding with Sauce

A baked pudding made with eggs, sugar, butter, flour, jam, baking soda, sour milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

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

Woodford Pudding with Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, butter, flour, jam, baking soda dissolved in sour milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pudding pan.

  4. Bake in the moderate oven until set, being careful not to bake too rapidly.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter as it bakes.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Its acidity activates the baking soda, giving lift and a slight tang.
Jam
Adds fruit sweetness, moisture, and colour throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake gently until set. Baking too rapidly can set the outside before the centre cooks, and the rising from baking soda and acid can collapse or leave the pudding dense and uneven. A moderate oven lets the structure set evenly.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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