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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sponge cake, raisins, milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Grease a pudding mold with butter.

  2. Line the bottom with raisins.

Layer and fill

  1. Layer the sponge cake squares in the mold, adding more raisins between layers.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract, then pour the custard mixture over the cake and raisins.

Steam

  1. Cover the mold and steam for 1.5 hours.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

Sponge cakes
Soaks up the custard and forms the soft, sliceable body of the pudding.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they set, giving the pudding its structure.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and softness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and contributes to its tender texture.
Raisins
Add pockets of concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Cover the mold and steam for 1.5 hours. Gentle, moist heat lets the egg custard set evenly without curdling or drying out. Steaming that is too vigorous or uncovered can leave the top dry or the custard grainy.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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