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Dessert

Ratafia Pudding

A custard pudding made with ratafias, spongecake, marsala, jam, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ratafia Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dish

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

  2. Butter a pie dish and line the bottom with spongecake strips.

Layer the pudding

  1. Sprinkle crumbled ratafias over the cake.

  2. Pour enough marsala or Madeira to soak the cake.

  3. Cover the ratafias with a layer of jam.

Make the custard and bake

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and whites together.

  2. Make a custard with the eggs and milk flavored with ratafia essence.

  3. Pour the custard over the pudding and garnish with ratafia biscuits.

  4. Bake for about 20 minutes.

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

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

  2. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Milk + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 and give it a rich, smooth set.
Egg whites
Add structure and help the custard set light and tender.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and softness.
Spongecake
Forms the base layer that soaks up the wine and custard.
Marsala or madeira
Soaks into the cake, adding moisture and a deep, fortified sweetness.
Ratafias
Add a crisp, almond-like aroma and flavour throughout the layers.

The step that matters

Pour the custard over the pudding and bake. Eggs thicken as they heat, so the custard must be baked gently until just set. Overbaking causes the eggs to curdle and become watery, while underbaking leaves the custard runny and the cake soggy.

“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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