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Dessert

Scotch Pudding

A baked pudding made with eggs, grated sponge cakes, currants, raisins, sugar, cinnamon, butter, marmalade, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Scotch Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the grated sponge cakes, currants, raisins, sugar, and ground cinnamon to the eggs and mix well.

  2. Melt the butter and stir it into the mixture along with the marmalade and cream.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 30‑40 minutes or until set.

  2. Serve warm, with or without sauce.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Bind the mixture and set into a custard-like structure when baked.
Sponge cakes
Provide the bulk and soft, absorbent crumb that holds the custard.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving a softer, more tender set.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps brown the surface as it bakes.

The step that matters

Baking until just set. Eggs set as they heat; overbaking makes the custard firm, dry and grainy, while underbaking leaves it runny. Checking for a set centre keeps the texture smooth and tender.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, raisin, sugar, cinnamon, butter, cream. 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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