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Dessert

Preserve Pudding

A baked pudding made with potatoes, butter, sugar, lemon, eggs, wine, nutmeg, and preserves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Preserve Pudding

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

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine the strained potatoes, softened butter, rolled sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, beaten eggs, wine, and grated nutmeg.

  3. Butter a deep dish well and spread a layer of preserves on the bottom.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the potato mixture over the preserves.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and mix in currant jelly.

  4. Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding cold before serving.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + quincetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together118 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + quincetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together336 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Strained potato forms the body and soft, sliceable structure of the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture.
Eggs
Proteins set during baking, binding the pudding into a firm custard.
Rolled sugar
Provides sweetness and helps soften the texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich filling.
Preserves
Supply concentrated fruit sweetness and flavour beneath the custard layer.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Stiff whites hold their shape and give a light, stable topping. Under-beaten whites slump into the pudding, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, sugar, lemon, egg, wine, nutmeg):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, sugar, lemon, egg, wine, 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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