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Dessert

Pumpkin Pudding

A baked dessert made from pumpkin pulp, butter, mace, nutmeg, milk, eggs, and optional wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Pumpkin 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 pumpkin

  1. Pare the pumpkin and remove the seeds.

  2. Cut half of the pumpkin into thin slices and boil in water until soft.

  3. Rub the boiled pumpkin through a fine sieve using the back of a wooden spoon.

  4. Measure the pulp; for each pint, add ½ cup butter, 1 teaspoon pounded mace, and 1 small grated nutmeg.

  5. Stir the mixture briskly for 1-2 minutes.

Make the pudding and bake

  1. Add ⅓ cup hot milk and 4 well-beaten eggs.

  2. Optionally, add ⅓ cup wine.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Pumpkin + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Pumpkin + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin
Forms the main body of the pudding, providing moisture and a soft, tender texture.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the pulp into a firm, sliceable custard.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, softer mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds liquid and dilutes the pulp, helping the custard bake to a tender, even texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the pumpkin mixture briskly. Brisk stirring of the pulp with butter and spices blends the fat evenly before the eggs go in, so the finished pudding bakes smooth rather than greasy or streaked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pumpkin, butter, nutmeg, milk, egg, wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pumpkin, butter, nutmeg, milk, egg, wine. 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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