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Dessert

Savoy Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from stale savoy cake, milk, butter, candied peel, eggs, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Savoy 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.

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the crumbled savoy cake in boiling milk for 30 minutes.

  2. Beat the mixture with a fork until smooth.

  3. Add butter, candied peel, egg yolks, sugar, and brandy; mix well.

  4. Let the mixture sit in a cool place for 1 hour, then beat it again.

Bake and top

  1. Transfer to a buttered dish and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until firm, sweeten, and flavor them.

  3. Spread the egg whites over the pudding and return to the oven for a few minutes until set.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Savoy cake
Provides the bulk and soft crumb structure that the custard-like mixture sets around.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a tender, melting texture to the pudding.
Egg yolks
Enrich and bind the mixture, helping it set into a custard when baked.
Egg whites
Whisked to a foam, they form a light, set topping that puffs and browns in the oven.
Boiling milk
Softens the dry cake so it absorbs liquid and breaks down evenly.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites until firm. Under-whisked whites will not hold a stable foam and may deflate or weep on top of the pudding. Fully whisked whites trap air and set into a light, even topping in the oven.

“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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