Why it works: Wine and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Renaissance Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Assemble
Mix the diced cake with chopped candied fruits and slices of preserves.
Pour the maraschino or wine over the mixture.
Place the mixture in a pudding mold.
Pour uncooked vanilla custard over the mixture.
Steam and serve
Place the mold in a pan and fill with boiling water to half the height of the mold.
Steam in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Turn out onto a dish and serve hot with Sabayon sauce.
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.
-
Wine + vanillatop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together887 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Plain stale cake
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up custard and holding its shape when turned out.
- Vanilla custard
- Sets during steaming to bind the cake and fruit into a soft, creamy pudding.
- Candied fruits
- Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Preserves
- Add fruit sweetness and moisture that softens the surrounding cake.
The step that matters
Steam in the water bath. Water should reach only half the mold's height so the custard cooks gently. Too much heat or boiling too hard can make the custard curdle and turn the pudding grainy or watery.
“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.
You might also like
Vanilla Ice Cream108 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.