Skip to main content
Dessert

Savarin Pudding

A custard cake made with sugar, eggs, flour, vanilla, brandy, baked in butter‑greased molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Savarin Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the molds

  1. Brush the insides of cake molds with melted butter and let the molds cool.

  2. Sift powdered sugar into the molds and discard the excess powdered sugar.

Make the batter

  1. Beat together the sugar and eggs until well combined.

  2. Gradually add the flour and mix until smooth.

  3. Stir in the vanilla extract and brandy.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into the prepared molds and let the batter set.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Provide structure and lift as they are beaten into the batter.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the batter.

The step that matters

Beat the sugar and eggs until well combined. Beating sugar and eggs traps air that helps the cake rise. Stopping early leaves a dense crumb, so the mixture should be fully combined before the flour is added.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Apricotfits less well

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

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipesBrandy PuddingBrandy Pudding13 recipes