Name: Hot Cabinet-pudding, Rum Sauce
Ingredients: ½ cup cold butter; ¼ pound citron, cut into leaves and stems; 4 ounces French candied fruit, cut into flower shapes; 4 ounces candied cherries; thin sponge cake, enough to line the mould; 4 eggs; ½ cup sugar; 1 pint milk

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Hot Cabinet-pudding, Rum Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mould

Butter a round or oval pudding mould thickly with cold butter.
Decorate the bottom and sides of the mould with the citron leaves, flower-shaped candied fruit, and candied cherries, securing them with butter.
Line the mould with thin sponge cake cut to fit.

Fill and make the custard

Fill the mould with alternate layers of sponge cake and the remaining chopped fruit.
Make a custard by mixing the eggs, sugar, and milk thoroughly.
Strain the custard and pour it slowly into the mould over the cake and fruit.

Steam and serve

Place the mould in a saucepan with hot water reaching halfway up the sides.
Cover the saucepan and steam the pudding for 2 hours, or until the custard is firm.
Test the custard with a knife; if it stains, steam longer.
Turn the pudding out of the mould and serve with rum 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 custard into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and helps give it a tender texture.
Sponge cake: Soaks up the custard and holds the layers together in the mould.
Cold butter: Greases the mould and secures the decorations, adding richness to the surface.

The step that matters

Steaming the custard until firm. Egg proteins set gently as the custard heats. If the water boils too hard or the pudding is steamed too long, the custard can turn grainy or spongy. Testing with a knife shows when it is set.

“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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Pound Cake373 recipes

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Hot Cabinet-pudding, Rum Sauce