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Dessert

A Souffle Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from soaked buns, milk, almonds or peach leaves, cinnamon, eggs, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Souffle Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the buns

  1. Place the buns in a large deep dish and pour 2 cups of milk over them to soak thoroughly. Cover and let stand for 1.5 hours.

Make the custard

  1. In a small saucepan, boil 1 cup of milk with the almonds or peach leaves and cinnamon sticks, keeping it covered.

  2. Once the milk is flavored, strain it and let it cool.

  3. Mix the cooled milk with another cup of milk and stir in the powdered sugar.

  4. Beat the eggs until light and gradually add them to the milk mixture to create a rich custard.

Bake and serve

  1. Stir the soaked buns until smooth, then gradually mix in the custard until well combined.

  2. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes until puffed and light.

  3. Serve with sifted white sugar or a sauce.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Beaten eggs set the custard and make the pudding puff and hold its light structure when baked.
Plain buns (rusks)
Soaked in milk, they absorb liquid and form the body of the pudding.
Milk
Provides the liquid that soaks the buns and forms the custard base, carrying the flavor.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the cold milk mixture.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs until light. Whisked eggs trap air that expands in the oven and makes the pudding puff. Under-beaten eggs leave the pudding dense and flat.

“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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