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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A custard pudding made with eggs, sherry, gelatin, crystallized fruits, and macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until very light.

  2. Add the sherry wine and stir thoroughly.

  3. Heat on the stove, stirring constantly until thick like custard.

  4. Dissolve the gelatine in ¼ cup warm water and add to the custard just before removing from heat.

  5. Set aside to cool.

  6. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the cooled custard.

Layer and set

  1. Cut the crystallized fruits into small pieces and crumble the macaroons.

  2. In a mold, layer the macaroons, then the fruits, and pour some custard over each layer.

  3. Repeat until the mold is filled and set on ice to harden.

  4. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + winetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together0 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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, whipped to stiff peaks, give the pudding a light, airy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the yolks whip to a light, pale mixture.
Sherry wine
Adds the main flavor and liquid to the custard.
Granulated gelatine
Sets the custard so the layers hold their shape when chilled.
Macaroons
Add crumbly texture and almond sweetness between the custard layers.
Crystallized fruits
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness between the custard layers.

The step that matters

Add the gelatine just before removing the custard from heat. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed into warm custard; if the custard overheats or boils, gelatine loses setting strength and the eggs can curdle, leaving a grainy, weak set.

“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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