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Dessert

Pudding Diplomatique

A sponge cake pudding with raisins, currants, citron, custard, and a currant jelly wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Pudding Diplomatique

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stone the raisins.

  2. Slice the citron.

  3. Wash and dry the currants.

  4. Slice the sponge cake.

Make the pudding

  1. Layer the sliced cake in a well-buttered mold with the fruit.

  2. Beat the eggs with the milk, sugar, and vanilla essence.

  3. Pour the custard over the cake layers.

  4. Dot the top with small bits of butter.

  5. Place the mold in a saucepan with boiling water reaching two-thirds up the sides.

  6. Simmer for 1 hour.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Dissolve the corn starch in cold water.

  2. Add the currant jelly and wine.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Turn the pudding out of the mold.

  5. Dust with powdered sugar.

  6. Serve with the sauce.

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. Vanilla + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Eggs
Set the custard and give the pudding its firm, sliceable body as they cook.
Sponge cake
Forms the absorbent base layers that soak up the custard as the pudding cooks.
Milk
Makes up the liquid of the custard, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds to its tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and keeps the mold surface from sticking.
Corn starch
Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and glossy rather than thin.

The step that matters

Simmer in a water bath. Water-bath cooking keeps the heat gentle so the eggs set evenly without curdling or becoming rubbery. Keep the water below a hard boil and at the stated level up the mold's sides.

Swap the currant

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

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

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