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Susans Caramel Pudding

A caramel-flavored custard pudding steamed for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Susans Caramel Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine 2 oz lump sugar and 2 tablespoons cold water in a small saucepan.

  2. Do not stir the mixture.

  3. Bring to a boil and watch carefully until it turns a nice brown color.

  4. Coat the inside of a plain pudding bowl with the caramel mixture and set aside to firm.

Make the custard and steam

  1. Beat the eggs and 1 oz sugar together, then add the milk and mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture into the prepared pudding bowl and cover.

  3. Steam for 2 hours.

Chill and serve

  1. Place in a cool place before turning out and serving, or prepare the day before.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the custard, giving a soft, tender texture when steamed.
Lump sugar
Melts and browns into caramel that lines the bowl and becomes the sauce on turning out.

The step that matters

Watching the caramel as it browns. Sugar syrup goes from pale to burnt within moments once it starts to colour. Removing it at a nice brown, before it turns bitter, keeps the caramel flavour pleasant rather than acrid.

“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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