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Dessert

Saucer Puddings

A small baked pudding made in saucers, filled with a flour, sugar, egg, and milk mixture, served with preserve and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Saucer Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour and powdered sugar.

  3. Beat the eggs and add them to the milk.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the flour and sugar, mixing well.

Bake

  1. Butter three saucers generously.

  2. Fill the saucers halfway with the mixture.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

Fill and serve

  1. Once cool enough, remove the puddings from the saucers.

  2. Cut each pudding in half.

  3. Spread a thin layer of preserve between the halves.

  4. Close the puddings.

  5. Serve with cream.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Set the batter into a tender, custard-like structure as they cook.
All-purpose flour
Gives the batter body so the pudding holds its shape rather than running.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding soft inside.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly at the edges.
Preserve
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity between the halves, and moisture inside.

The step that matters

Fill the saucers halfway. Filling only partway leaves room for the batter to rise and set without overflowing. Overfilling can spill and bake unevenly, while too little batter gives a thin, dry pudding.

“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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