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Dessert

Rusk Pudding

A custard pudding made with thin rusks soaked in milk and egg yolks, sweetened with jam and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Rusk Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Spread a little jam between every two rusks and press them closely together.

  2. Arrange the rusks neatly in a buttered mold.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk, egg yolks, sugar, and flavoring to make custard.

  2. Pour the custard over the rusks.

  3. Let them soak for 1 hour.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding for about 2 hours.

  2. Serve on a hot dish with wine or arrowroot sauce poured around it.

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

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

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 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

Rusks
Form the structure of the pudding and soak up the custard as it sets.
Egg yolks
Set the custard when steamed, giving it a rich, tender texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the custard, keeping the pudding moist.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor between the layers of rusks.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam heat must be gentle and steady so the egg yolks in the custard set into a tender pudding. Too much heat can cause the custard to curdle or turn rubbery and watery.

“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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