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Dessert

Citron Pudding

A sweet pudding made with Windsor beans, clarified butter, eggs, sugar, brandy, puff pastry, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Citron Pudding

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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the Windsor beans until soft, then remove the skins.

  2. Beat the beans in a mortar until fine.

  3. Mix in the clarified butter, beaten eggs, sugar, and brandy.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a dish with puff pastry and layer the citron pieces on top.

  2. Pour the pudding mixture into the dish and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Windsor beans
Form the bulk of the pudding, giving it a thick, smooth body when beaten fine.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the mixture set smoothly and silky.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the pudding its firm structure.
Citron
Provides aromatic, slightly bitter citrus flavour that contrasts with the sweetness.

The step that matters

Beat the beans until fine. If the beans stay coarse, the pudding will have a grainy texture rather than a smooth, even custard-like body. Thorough mashing breaks the cell walls so the filling blends evenly with the butter and eggs.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, brandy):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, brandy. 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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