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Derbyshire Pudding

A baked potato pudding with butter, sugar, lemon, currants, and jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Derbyshire Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the potatoes, peel them, and mash to a smooth paste.

  2. Add the butter, sugar, grated lemon rinds, cleaned currants, strained lemon juice, and beaten egg yolks.

  3. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold into the mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease a pie dish and layer the mixture to about 2 inches deep, creating a slight hollow in the center.

  2. Add 1-2 spoonfuls of jam into the hollow and cover with the remaining potato mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 minutes.

  4. Serve immediately after baking.

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. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and a soft, moist body for the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, moist texture.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the mixture; whipped whites lighten it and help it rise.
Lemons
Rind and juice add aroma and a bright acidity that balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps brown the surface as it bakes.
Jam
Adds a sweet, fruity layer that softens and flavours the centre as it bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped to a stiff froth trap air that lifts the mixture. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates it and leaves the pudding dense.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, sugar, egg, lemon. 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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