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Dessert

Currant Pudding

A baked pudding made with milk, eggs, sugar, currant juice, stale bread, and topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Currant Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare and assemble

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine milk, sugar, and beaten eggs.

  3. Layer stale bread slices in a baking pan.

  4. Pour the milk mixture over the bread.

  5. Mix 1 cup of white sugar into the currant juice and pour it over the pudding.

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff and drop them in hot water for a moment.

  2. Spread the beaten egg whites over the top of the pudding before serving.

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 + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Currant + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that sets with the eggs into a soft custard.
Eggs
Bind the custard and help it set as it bakes.
Stale bread
Absorbs the custard and gives the pudding its body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the custard and the currant juice.
Currant juice
Adds tart fruit flavor and moisture to the pudding.
Egg whites
Form a light, airy topping when beaten until stiff.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites need to be beaten until they hold firm peaks, because the air trapped in the foam gives the topping its lightness. Under-beaten whites stay runny and slide off the pudding, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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