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Dessert

German Pudding

A custard pudding flavored with lemon rind and brandy, baked for over an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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German Pudding

Why it works: Flour and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 525 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

German Pudding

5 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk with the lemon rind until well flavored, then strain it.

  2. Mix the strained milk with flour, arrowroot, butter, and sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture for a few minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.

  4. Beat the eggs, yolks, and whites separately, then add them to the mixture.

Prepare the mould

  1. Boil sugar to candy.

  2. Line a mould with the candied sugar.

  3. Pour brandy into the mould.

  4. Pour the mixture into the mould.

  5. Tie the mould down with a cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for more than one hour.

  2. When turned out, the brandy and sugar form a sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

743Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Arrowrootnot in our table0
Brandynot in our table0

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

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Flour + arrowroottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together525 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Thickens the milk mixture and gives the pudding body and structure.
Arrowroot
Adds thickening so the mixture sets smoothly without heavy starch flavor.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and moisture for the custard.
Eggs
Add structure and set the pudding as they cook through.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and melts into a candy lining that becomes the sauce.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and mixes with the candied sugar to form the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs after removing the mixture from heat. Eggs begin to scramble and curdle when they meet very hot liquid. Taking the mixture off the heat first lets it cool slightly, so the eggs blend in smoothly and set evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, arrowroot, milk, brandy, sugar, egg. 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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