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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding No. 4

A custard bread pudding with pineapple, custard, and a kirsch‑flavored syrup served hot or cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding No. 4

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Cut slices of bread one half inch thick to fit a mold.

  2. Fill the mold with alternate layers of bread and chopped drained pineapple (fresh or canned).

  3. Pour in a custard mixture made of one pint of milk, yolks of three eggs, and three tablespoonfuls of sugar.

  4. Bake in a slow oven for one hour, or until the custard is set.

  5. Serve with a sauce made of the juice of the fruit diluted and thickened with a little arrowroot, then sweetened and flavored with kirsch if liked, and a few shredded almonds.

Make the savarins

  1. Butter individual timbale-molds and sprinkle them with chopped almonds.

  2. Fill them half full of brioche paste (see page 359).

  3. Let the paste rise to the top of the molds.

  4. Bake in a hot oven for about twenty minutes.

  5. When baked, cut off the top even with the mold and turn them out.

  6. Pour over them a hot syrup made of one cupful of sugar and three quarters of a cupful of water boiled for ten minutes (or to 30 °C), flavored with four teaspoonfuls of kirsch.

  7. Let the savarins absorb enough of the hot syrup to be well moistened, but not so much as to lose their firmness.

  8. Drain and serve them hot.

Variations

  1. Or incorporate into the paste before molding a little shredded candied orange-peel.

  2. Soak them, when baked, in syrup flavored with orange or curacao, and cover them with an orange fondant icing (see page 485), and serve cold.

Make the babas

  1. Into three cupfuls of brioche paste mix one cupful of currants, raisins, and chopped citron, which have soaked for an hour in maraschino.

  2. Half fill buttered baba-molds (which are cups holding about one half pint).

  3. Let it rise to the top of the mold, which will take about three quarters of an hour.

  4. It must not rise in too warm a place, or the butter will separate.

  5. Bake them in a moderate oven for one half hour.

  6. Let them absorb hot syrup at 30 °C, flavored with kirsch or sherry.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

338Calories
15 gProtein
14 gFat
41 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Briochenot in our table0
Waternot 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 Mary Ronald. 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.

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. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Brioche + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Milk + briochetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together91 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Yolks set the custard, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when baked.
Brioche paste
Enriched yeast dough that rises and bakes into a light, tender crumb.
Bread (in the method)
Provides the body of the pudding and soaks up the custard as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and the syrup that moistens the savarins.
Currants
Adds sweetness and chewy texture to the baba dough.

The step that matters

Let the brioche paste rise in a moderate place. Yeast dough must rise gently. Too much warmth melts the butter in the paste so it separates, and the dough can over-proof and collapse in the oven.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, brioche, 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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