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Dessert

Quaking Pudding

A British dessert made by boiling a custard mixture of cream, eggs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Quaking Pudding

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Quaking Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Beat the cream, egg yolks, and egg whites well, then strain through a fine sieve.

  2. Mix the flour with 1-2 tablespoons of cream until smooth.

  3. Combine the cream and egg mixture with the flour mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Grease a dish or basin with butter and dredge with flour.

  2. Tie the mixture tightly in the prepared dish.

  3. Boil water and place the pudding in it, cooking for 1 hour.

  4. Serve with wine sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help the pudding set into a firm, custard-like body.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the pudding rise and hold its structure as it cooks.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the pudding a soft, tender texture.
Flour
Thickens the mixture and gives it body so it holds together when cooked.

The step that matters

Tying the mixture tightly in the dish. A loose cloth or lid lets water seep in and the pudding turns soggy, while a tight seal keeps the texture dense and moist during boiling.

“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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