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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A steamed custard with a caramel base made from sugar, water, eggs, milk, and grated sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Caramel Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and a little water over low heat until it turns light brown.

  2. Pour the melted sugar into a well-buttered tin.

Make and steam the custard

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs, milk, sugar, and grated sponge cake until well combined.

  2. Pour the egg mixture over the melted sugar in the tin.

  3. Place the tin in a saucepan of boiling water and steam slowly until set, about 30 minutes.

Cool and serve

  1. Allow to cool, then turn out onto a plate.

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. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that gives the pudding its soft, creamy texture.
White sugar
Melts and browns to form the caramel that coats the pudding and sweetens it.
Grated sponge cake
Adds body and absorbs liquid, helping the custard hold a softer crumb texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar to light brown. Sugar that is too pale stays bland and sticky, while over-browned sugar turns bitter. Watch it closely over low heat so it melts evenly and reaches a clear amber colour before the custard goes in.

“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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