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Dessert

Paris Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, rice, eggs, suet, apples, raisins, almonds, candied peel, and spices, baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Paris Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk with the ground rice in a saucepan until it thickens.

  2. Let it cool slightly.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks and whites.

  4. Add the beef suet, chopped apples, raisins, rusks, and jam.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the sweet and bitter almonds.

  2. Pound the blanched almonds.

  3. Mix the almonds with powdered sugar, candied peel, nutmeg, and vanilla.

Combine and steam

  1. Combine all ingredients.

  2. Beat well for a few minutes.

  3. Optionally stir in brandy.

  4. Pour the mixture into a well-oiled mold.

  5. Cover with oiled paper.

  6. Tie with a cloth.

  7. Place in boiling water.

  8. Boil for 2 hours.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground rice
Thickens the milk into a body that holds the pudding together.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
Egg whites
Add airy lightness and help the pudding set as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding a tender texture.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a fine texture when pounded into the mixture.
Rusks or bread-crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and structure.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours in a covered mold. The mold must be well sealed and the water kept boiling steadily. Steam trapped inside cooks the pudding evenly, while water that drops off the boil or leaks in can make the texture soggy or uneven.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rice, egg, beef, raisin, bread, almond):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice, egg, beef, raisin, bread, almond. 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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