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Dessert

Empress Pudding

A baked pudding made with butter, powdered sugar, egg yolks, flour, served with cinnamon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Empress Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Mix in the egg yolks until well combined.

  3. Add the powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.

  4. Gradually add the flour and beat until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Pour the batter into small cups, filling them halfway.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes until risen.

  4. Serve with cinnamon 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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and when beaten traps air that helps the pudding rise.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the butter, giving a smooth, tender structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and contributes to a fine, smooth texture.

The step that matters

Filling the cups only halfway. The batter rises during baking. Overfilling can cause it to spill over or bake unevenly, while leaving room lets it rise into a full, light pudding.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonthe original
  4. Jalapenofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, sauce. 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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