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Dessert

Cherry Pudding

A cherry pudding baked in a pie crust, topped with a lemon‑flavored egg yolk sponge.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Cherry Pudding

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cherry 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.

Prepare the crust and fruit

  1. Line a deep pan with the pie crust and dust lightly with flour or matzo meal.

  2. Fill the crust with fresh cherries and sprinkle with sugar and sliced almonds.

  3. Bake for 25 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

Make the sponge topping

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with ¼ cup sugar and lemon juice.

  2. In another bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  3. Fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture, then add grated lemon rind and flour.

  4. Spread the sponge mixture over the baked cherries.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the topping its light, sponge-like rise.
Egg yolks
Beaten with sugar and lemon juice, they add richness and help set the topping.
Flour
Adds body to the sponge mixture so it holds its shape over the cherries.
Fresh cherries
Provide the juicy, tart fruit base that softens and flavors the pudding beneath the topping.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Whipped whites hold air that gives the sponge its lift. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing, so the topping stays light.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, almond, egg. 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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