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Dessert

Gooseberry Pudding

A baked dessert made with gooseberries, sugar, butter, biscuits, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and biscuit are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,009 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Gooseberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fruit

  1. Scald the gooseberries in water until soft.

  2. Drain them in a sieve.

  3. Press the gooseberries through a fine sieve with the back of a wooden spoon.

Make the batter

  1. Add sugar, butter, and crushed Naples biscuits to the gooseberries.

  2. Beat in the eggs until well combined.

  3. Mix everything together and beat for 15 minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 30 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 + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and balances the tartness of the gooseberries.
Green gooseberries
Provide the tart fruit flavour and moisture for the pudding.
Naples biscuits
Add body and structure, soaking up moisture from the fruit and eggs.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture for 15 minutes. Long beating incorporates air and fully combines the fruit purée, sugar, butter and eggs, giving an even, light texture after baking. Under-mixing can leave streaks of butter or uneven setting.

“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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