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Dessert

Cheese-cake Pudding

A baked pudding made with egg yolks, brown sugar, butter, nutmeg or lemon extract, brandy or rum, and lined with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,311 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Cheese-cake 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

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

Make the filling

  1. Cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light, then mix them with the creamed mixture.

  3. Season with nutmeg or lemon extract and add the brandy or rum.

Bake

  1. Line small tins or plates with pastry and pour the mixture in.

  2. Bake until set and lightly golden.

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. Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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

Egg yolks
Set the filling into a custard-like texture as they cook and add richness.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, tender texture and carries flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses gives a deeper, caramel-like flavour.
Brandy or rum
Adds aroma and a warm flavour note to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set and lightly golden. Egg yolks set as they heat, so underbaking leaves a runny centre while overbaking can make the filling curdle, weep and turn grainy. Check for a firm centre and a light golden top.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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