Skip to main content
Dessert

Transparent Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with eggs, sugar, butter, and cake, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,067 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Transparent 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.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs very light.

  2. Combine the sugar and butter in a large pan.

  3. Heat over medium heat and stir constantly until it begins to thicken.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assemble

  1. Butter a baking dish.

  2. Line the dish with thinly sliced stale cake.

  3. Cover the cake with sweetmeats if desired.

  4. Pour the cooled mixture over the cake.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for nearly an hour.

  2. Beat the remaining egg whites to a froth.

  3. Add powdered sugar and flavor to taste.

  4. Pour over the pudding after baking.

  5. Return to the oven for a few minutes to brown the top.

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 + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Eggs
Beaten eggs add richness and help the pudding set when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps it thicken when stirred over heat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, tender texture.
Stale cake
Forms the base layer that soaks up the custard as it bakes.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Sugar, butter and egg mixture can scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred over heat. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture smooth as it thickens.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

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

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes