Skip to main content
Dessert

Quaking Pudding

A steamed bread pudding with currants, raisins, and a creamy butter‑sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hatfield (Mass.). Congregational Church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Quaking Pudding

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Quaking Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Warm 2 tablespoons butter for buttering the mold.

  2. Butter a 3 quart bowl thoroughly.

  3. Cut 1 quart of stale bread into thin slices.

  4. Pack the sliced bread solid into a quart measure.

  5. Measure 1/4 cup currants, 1 cup seeded raisins, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.

  6. Heat milk, whisk 6 eggs, and set aside.

  7. Sprinkle the bottom and sides of the bowl with currants.

Make and steam the pudding

  1. Layer the bread in the bowl, placing raisins between layers, and topping with bread.

  2. Beat the eggs, sugar, salt, and nutmeg; add the milk and pour over the bread.

  3. Place the bowl in a cool place for three hours.

  4. Steam the pudding in a steamer for one hour and fifteen minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare the creamy sauce: beat 1/4 cup butter to a cream, gradually adding 1 cup powdered sugar, beating all the time until light and creamy.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon and a little at a time of 1 cup cream or milk, beating until smooth.

  3. Place the sauce bowl in a basin of hot water until smooth and creamy.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

618Calories
13 gProtein
14 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hatfield (Mass.). Congregational Church. 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

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

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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 (in the method)
Bind the custard and help set the pudding as it steams.
Bread
Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the egg custard.
Milk (in the method)
Moistens the bread and forms the custard with the eggs.
Butter
Enriches the creamy sauce and gives it a smooth, rich texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and helps it become light and creamy when beaten.
Raisins (in the method)
Add sweetness and chewy texture between the bread layers.

The step that matters

Beating the butter and powdered sugar for the sauce. Beating softened butter well incorporates air and dissolves sugar gradually, so the sauce becomes smooth and light rather than grainy. Adding the sugar slowly keeps the emulsion stable.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, sugar. 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

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes