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Dessert

Cherry Pudding,

A boiled pudding made with eggs, milk, flour, butter, salt, baking powder, and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cherry Pudding,

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 ↓

Cherry Pudding,

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Stir in the milk and flour to make a smooth batter.

  3. Add the melted butter and salt.

  4. Sift in the baking powder and mix thoroughly.

  5. Fold in the stoned cherries.

Boil and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding mold or kettle.

  2. Boil until cooked through.

  3. Serve warm.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during boiling.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten-based structure that holds the pudding together.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the pudding and helps it rise.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its liquid body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a tender texture.
Stoned cherries
Provide fruit pieces and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Dredge the cherries in flour before folding. Flour-coated fruit is less likely to sink to the bottom of the thin batter, so the cherries stay distributed through the pudding as it sets.

“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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