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Dessert

Boiled Curd Pudding

A boiled pudding made from curd, milk, eggs, and dried fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,746 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Boiled Curd Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the curd

  1. Drain the curd from the milk and rub it through a sieve.

Mix the pudding

  1. Mix the curd with the eggs, cream, orange-flower water, grated nutmeg, flour, and baking powder.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, currants, and raisins to the mixture.

Boil

  1. Place the mixture in a well-floured cloth and tie it securely.

  2. Boil in water for one hour.

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. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + breadtop 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

Curd (in the method)
Forms the body of the pudding, giving it a soft, moist, set texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Flour
Adds structure so the pudding holds its shape when boiled.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the pudding and helps it rise.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth. The cloth must be well floured and tied securely so the pudding keeps its shape and the surface forms a dry skin. If water gets in, the pudding turns soggy and loose.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, cream, orange, nutmeg, flour, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, cream, orange, nutmeg, flour, 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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