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Dessert

Cold Cabinet Pudding

A chilled custard pudding layered with candied fruit and ladyfingers, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cold Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine hot milk, egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Assemble and chill

  1. Decorate a mold with candied fruit and pour in a layer of custard.

  2. Add a layer of lady fingers or stale cake, followed by more fruit and custard.

  3. Repeat layers until the mold is full.

  4. Chill until set and serve with whipped cream and candied cherries.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set and add richness and colour.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its shape when chilled.
Lady fingers or stale cake
Provides structure and absorbs custard between the layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens its flavour.
Hot milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Egg yolks and corn starch thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle the yolks and leave a grainy texture. Stirring over medium heat keeps the custard smooth and lets the starch set properly when chilled.

“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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