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Dessert

Gooseberry Pudding

A dessert made with stewed gooseberries, butter, bread, sugar, eggs, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gooseberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Stew the gooseberries until quite soft.

  2. When they are cold, mash them fine with the back of a spoon, and stir into them two ounces of sugar.

  3. Take two ounces more of sugar, and stir it to a cream with two ounces of butter.

  4. Grate very fine as much stale bread as will weigh two ounces.

  5. Beat three eggs.

Assemble and bake

  1. Stir them into the butter and sugar, in turn with the gooseberries and bread.

  2. Lay puff-paste in a soup plate.

  3. Put in the mixture, and bake it half an hour.

  4. Do not grate sugar over it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

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

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a light, custard-like body when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture when creamed with sugar.
Gooseberries
Provide tartness and moisture that flavour the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps cream the butter.
Grated bread
Absorbs moisture and gives the mixture body.

The step that matters

Let the gooseberries cool before mixing. Hot fruit would melt the creamed butter and sugar, loosening the mixture so it bakes unevenly and loses its light body. Cooling them first keeps the fat stable.

“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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