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Cracker Pudding

A baked cracker pudding with jam and a sweet egg sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raspberry and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 950 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Cracker Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

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.

Prepare

  1. Halve the crackers and soak them in cold water for 5 minutes.

  2. Place the soaked crackers in a baking pan, ensuring they do not touch each other.

Bake

  1. Drop a small piece of butter on each cracker.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 40 minutes.

  3. Once done, drop raspberry jam on each cracker.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, beat the egg and sugar until light, then add hot milk and vanilla.

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. Raspberry + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Raspberry + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,014 recipes

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

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

Common crackers
Form the base of the pudding, softening and absorbing moisture as they soak and bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the crackers brown and carry flavor as they bake.
Raspberry jam
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity to each cracker once it comes out of the oven.
Egg
Beaten with sugar and milk, it thickens and gives the sauce body and structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and, beaten with the egg, helps it become light.

The step that matters

Beating the egg and sugar until light. Beating incorporates air into the egg and sugar mixture, giving the sauce a lighter texture. Adding the hot milk gradually while still combining helps keep the egg from curdling in the sauce.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, milk, vanilla. 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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