Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cuban Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Crumb a pound of sponge cakes and an equal quantity of grated coconut in a basin.
Pour the mixture over two pints of rich cream that has been sweetened with a quarter pound of loaf sugar and heated to boiling.
Cover the basin and, when the cream is absorbed, stir in eight well-beaten eggs.
Mould and steam
Butter a mold, arrange four or five ounces of preserved ginger around it, pour the pudding into the mold carefully, and tie it down with a cloth.
Steam or boil slowly for an hour and a half. Serve with warmed ginger syrup poured over the pudding.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Ginger | 1 tsp grated fresh (2g) | 2 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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.
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
-
Cream + gingertop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
- Sponge cakes
- Soak up the cream and form the body of the pudding.
- Rich cream
- Provides moisture and richness that the cake crumb absorbs.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the cream and adds to the pudding's flavour.
- Preserved ginger
- Adds spicy aroma and sweetness along the mould's surface.
The step that matters
Steaming the pudding slowly. Gentle, steady heat lets the eggs set into a tender custard-like body. Boiling hard or letting the water run dry can make the pudding rough, cracked, or unevenly cooked.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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