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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed fruit and sponge cake pudding with custard, flavored with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Grease the inside of a pudding mold.

  2. Layer the bottom with some chopped fruit.

  3. Add a layer of sponge cake slices.

  4. Sprinkle with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  5. Repeat layering with fruit and cake until the mold is nearly full.

Make the custard and soak

  1. In a bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, salt, and melted butter.

  2. Pour the custard mixture over the cake without cooking it.

  3. Let it stand and soak for 1 hour.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1.5 hours.

  2. Serve with wine sauce or custard.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cake
Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the custard as it stands.
Eggs
Set the custard during steaming, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, keeping the cake moist as it steams.
Melted butter
Adds fat to the custard, contributing richness and a tender texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture between the layers of cake.
Currants
Add tart, concentrated fruit flavour and chewiness between the layers.

The step that matters

Pour the custard without cooking it. The custard must be poured over the cake while raw so it soaks in during the rest. Cooking it first would stop it penetrating the bread-like cake, leaving a dry, uneven pudding once steamed.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, milk, egg, butter. 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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