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Dessert

Vanilla Sauce

A custard-based pudding made with English muffins, dried fruit, almonds, and a vanilla sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Vanilla Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Put 1/2 pint milk in a small saucepan over the fire.

  2. When the milk is scalding hot, add the yolks of 3 eggs and stir until it is as thick as boiled custard.

  3. When the mixture is taken from the fire and cooled, add 1 tablespoonful vanilla extract and the whites of two eggs whipped stiff.

Assemble

  1. Well butter a mould.

  2. Make a layer of muffins cut very thin, then of fruit, the almonds, and so on, until all the ingredients are used.

  3. Beat the milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and noyeau together.

  4. Pour over the contents of mould, and let it stay, before baking, at least half an hour.

Steam and serve

  1. Set it in a saucepan with boiling water to reach two-thirds up the mould.

  2. Steam it thus one hour.

  3. Turn it out on a dish carefully and serve with cream sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

433Calories
16 gProtein
20 gFat
48 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cherry1 cup (138g)87
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7

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

By Margaret Brown. 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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 thicken the custard and whites lighten the mixture, setting the pudding as it cooks.
English muffins
Provide the bread structure that soaks up the custard and holds the layers together.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a softer, silkier texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that soaks the muffins and sets when steamed.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and contributes to its browning and flavour.
Dried cherries
Add fruit sweetness and chewy texture between the layers.

The step that matters

Let the mould stand before steaming. Resting lets the muffin layers absorb the egg custard fully, so the pudding sets evenly rather than leaving dry bread or a loose, soggy centre.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Cocoafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, vanilla, 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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