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A Marrow Pudding

A pudding made with beef marrow, cream, eggs, brandy, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,920 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

A Marrow Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pour the boiling cream over the crumb of a penny loaf.

  2. Cut the beef marrow very thin.

  3. Beat the eggs well, then add the brandy, salt, and nutmeg.

  4. Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil or bake the mixture for 45 minutes.

  2. Sprinkle the citron over the pudding when serving.

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. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Beef + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,495 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Beef marrow
Melts during cooking, adding richness and a silky, moist body to the pudding.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the bread and cream into a custard-like pudding.
Boiling cream
Soaks the bread crumb and carries heat and fat, giving the pudding a rich, tender texture.
Penny loaf (in the method)
Its crumb soaks up the cream and holds the mixture together as it sets.

The step that matters

Boil or bake the mixture for 45 minutes. Egg proteins must set gently; too much heat or time can curdle or toughen the pudding, while too little leaves it loose and wet in the centre.

“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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