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Dessert

Semolina Pudding, Steamed

A steamed pudding made with milk, bitter almonds, semolina, ratafias, sugar, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and semolina share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 93 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Semolina Pudding, Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine milk and pounded bitter almonds in a saucepan.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add semolina, ratafias, salt, sugar, and butter to the saucepan.

  4. Stir over heat until thickened and it leaves the sides of the pan.

  5. Pour the mixture out.

  6. Let it cool.

  7. Stir in the well-whisked eggs.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a plain mold generously.

  2. Fill the mold with the mixture.

  3. Cover the mold tightly.

  4. Steam the pudding for 1 hour, ensuring a continuous supply of steam.

  5. Let the pudding stand for 2 to 3 minutes.

  6. Turn it out carefully.

  7. Serve with stewed fruit or sweet sauce around it, and additional sauce on a separate dish.

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. Almond + semolinatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

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

  5. Semolina + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together351 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Thickens the milk into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cooks and sets.
Eggs
Bind the pudding and help it set firm once steamed.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the semolina thickens.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and keeps the pudding moist.

The step that matters

Stir over heat until thickened. Semolina must be cooked until it thickens and pulls away from the pan sides so its starch swells fully. Undercooked semolina leaves the pudding grainy and loose.

“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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