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Dessert

Cherry Pudding, Steamed

A steamed pudding made with cherries, pineapple, cake, custard, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Cherry Pudding, Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tin

  1. Line a round cake tin with thickly greased paper, extending above the top.

  2. Cut glace cherries and pineapple into slices, and arrange alternate rows in the tin, pressing them down firmly.

  3. Fill the inside with broken pieces of plain cake, ensuring not to pack too closely.

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard by whisking together the eggs, milk, castor sugar, and vanilla.

  2. Strain the custard over the cake pieces in the tin.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the tin in a saucepan with boiling water halfway up the sides.

  2. Cover with a piece of greased paper and steam for 45 minutes.

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. Pineapple + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  4. Pineapple + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together885 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

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 so it holds together and firms up during steaming.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it a soft, tender texture.
Plain cake
Soaks up the custard to form the body of the pudding.
Glace cherries
Provide sweetness and colour arranged through the pudding.

The step that matters

Pressing the fruit firmly into the tin. Firmly packed cherries and pineapple form a neat, even layer on the bottom and sides, so they stay in position when the pudding is turned out.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

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