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Dessert

Neapolitan Pudding

A steamed bread pudding with almond macaroons, sponge cake, jelly, and a lemon‑sherry custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Neapolitan Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk and sherry wine.

  2. Rub the melted Cottolene and sugar together.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks, soaked bread crumbs, lemon juice, and rind; mix until smooth.

Layer and steam

  1. Grease a mold and layer the bottom with dry bread crumbs and macaroons, wetting them with wine.

  2. Add a layer of the mixture, then sponge cake spread with jelly, followed by more macaroons and custard.

  3. Repeat layers until the mold is full, finishing with a layer of the mixture on top.

  4. Cover and steam in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

Brown and serve

  1. Remove the cover to brown the top, then turn out onto a dish.

  2. Serve with a sauce made of warmed currant jelly mixed with melted butter and sherry.

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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a custard when steamed.
Sponge cake
Adds a soft, absorbent body that soaks up wine and custard.
Almond macaroons
Add chewy texture and almond flavour between the layers.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and sherry to give the custard body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and contributes to its tender texture.
Jelly or jam
Adds sweetness and fruity moisture between the layers.

The step that matters

Steam covered, then uncover to brown. Steaming with the lid on cooks the eggs gently into a set custard without drying it. Uncovering only at the end lets the top brown, so the cover must come off late to avoid a pale, soggy surface.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Peasfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Cocoafits about as well

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