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Dessert

Woodford Pudding

A baked pudding made with eggs, sugar, butter, flour, jam, baking soda, sour milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Woodford Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, butter, flour, jam, baking soda dissolved in sour milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pudding pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake slowly until set.

  2. Serve with 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure as they set during baking, holding the pudding together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to a tender, moist crumb.
Flour
Forms the body of the pudding as its starches set with the eggs.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Jam or preserves
Supplies fruit sweetness, flavour and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake slowly until set. Gentle heat lets the egg proteins set evenly without curdling or drying out. Baking too hot can make the outside overcook before the centre firms.

“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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