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Parsnip Pudding

A baked or boiled pudding made from mashed parsnips, eggs, butter, and optional brandy, topped with bread crumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Parsnip 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 parsnips

  1. Wash, scrape, and boil the parsnips until tender.

  2. Mash the parsnips and press them through a colander.

Make the pudding

  1. Stir in nutmeg, fresh butter, beaten eggs, and brandy if using.

  2. Butter a pie dish and pour in the mixture.

Top and bake

  1. Strew finely grated bread crumbs thickly over the top.

  2. Divide the remaining butter into small pieces and place them on top.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1.5 hours, or boil for 1 hour and 15 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. Parsnip + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the pudding, giving it body and a naturally sweet, earthy flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mashed parsnips and set as the pudding bakes, giving it a firm yet tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns the crumb topping in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on top of the pudding.

Swap the parsnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, brandy, nutmeg, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, brandy, nutmeg, bread. 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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