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Dessert

Carrot Pudding

A baked pudding made with carrots, sponge cakes, milk, eggs, butter, brandy, and sugar, topped with candied peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Carrot Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Soak the sponge cakes in boiling milk.

  2. Mash the boiled carrots and rub them through a fine sieve.

  3. In a bowl, combine the mashed carrots, beaten eggs, melted butter, brandy, and sugar to taste. Mix all ingredients well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a rim of puff pastry around a baking dish.

  2. Pour the pudding mixture into the dish.

  3. Garnish the top with slices of candied orange or lemon peel.

  4. Bake in a warm 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. Carrot + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable custard when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the pudding.
Sponge cakes
Soak up the hot milk to form the soft base of the pudding.
Carrots
Provide bulk, natural sweetness and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, and overbaking makes them curdle and turn the pudding grainy and watery. Remove it once the centre has just firmed.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

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