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Dessert

Bab a Puddings

A yeast-based pudding with cherries, rum, and cream, baked in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift 4 ounces of flour into a bowl and make a hollow in the center.

  2. Add 1 ounce of German yeast and dilute with warm milk to make a light dough.

  3. Knead the dough well and let it rise by the fire.

  4. In a larger bowl, combine 12 ounces of flour, a pinch of coarse sea salt, 4 ounces of sugar, a little milk, 6 ounces of butter, and 8 eggs.

  5. Knead the mixture for 10 minutes, lifting it with each movement.

  6. Add the risen dough and work for 5 more minutes.

  7. Finish by mixing in ½ pint of cream, 1 pound of dried cherries, and ⅓ cup of rum or brandy.

  8. Cover the bowl with a warm cloth and let it rise by the fire for 3 hours.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter the molds and drop a few dried cherries into each.

  2. Fill the molds three-quarters full and bake quickly until they rise to the top.

  3. If serving hot, drizzle with rum or brandy syrup; if serving cold, serve dry or with syrup for added flavor.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Butter + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, setting the crumb as the batter bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the crumb.
German yeast
Produces gas that lifts the dough so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning as the pudding bakes.
Dried cherries
Add tart fruitiness and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Fill the molds three-quarters full. Yeast dough keeps rising in the oven, so overfilling can overflow, while underfilling gives a dense, small pudding. Quick baking sets the structure before it collapses.

“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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