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Dessert

Fruit Cracker Pudding

A pudding made from powdered crackers, milk, suet, raisins, currants, almonds, eggs, sugar, spices, and rose water, baked or steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Fruit Cracker Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cracker in the milk.

  2. Blanch the almonds and cut them into thin shavings.

Make the pudding

  1. Beat the yolks with the sugar until light and thick.

  2. Mix in the soaked cracker and milk, suet, fruit, spices, and rose water.

  3. Fold in the whipped egg whites and finally add the almonds.

Bake or steam and serve

  1. Bake in a buttered mold for 1.5 hours or steam in a well-buttered mold for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with wine sauce.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the batter and whipped whites lighten it, giving the pudding its set structure.
Powdered cracker
Soaked in milk, it absorbs liquid and gives the pudding body and a soft, bready crumb.
Beef suet
Adds fat that enriches the pudding and keeps its texture moist and tender.
Milk
Hydrates the cracker and adds moisture that helps the pudding set gently.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks whip to a light, thick texture.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft pudding.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whites so the pudding rises and stays light. Stirring hard would deflate the foam and leave a dense result.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, beef, raisin, almond, egg, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, beef, raisin, almond, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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