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Dessert

Jelly Pudding

A sweet dessert made with jelly, sugar, butter, eggs, wine, and nutmeg, baked or steamed until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Jelly Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  2. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Stir in the jelly and wine until fully combined.

  4. Add nutmeg to taste and mix well.

Cook

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold and steam or bake until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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 + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the pudding a light, tender texture.
Eggs
Add structure as they set, holding the pudding together when cooked.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps create a light texture when creamed with butter.
Jelly
Adds fruit flavour and sweetness, and moisture to the batter.
Wine
Adds moisture and a subtle flavour that blends with the jelly.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a pudding mold and steam or bake until set. The eggs must set fully to hold the pudding together. Underbaked or understeamed batter stays wet and collapses when unmolded, while overcooking can make it dry and rubbery.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, wine. 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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