Why it works: Raisin and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,630 recipes. Both carry decanoic acid, which smells acides aroma. The science ↓
Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grease a mold with butter.
Line the bottom with raisins.
Add the sponge cake squares and more raisins on top.
Steam
Pour the rich custard over the cake and raisins.
Steam for 1.5 hours.
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.
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Raisin + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,630 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Penny sponge cakes
- Provides the soft, absorbent body that soaks up the custard as it sets.
- Rich custard
- Sets during steaming to bind the cake and raisins into a tender, creamy pudding.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chew between layers of cake.
The step that matters
Steam for 1.5 hours. Gentle, steady steam heat sets the custard slowly so it stays smooth and tender. Too much heat can make the egg-based custard curdle or turn rubbery, leaving the pudding grainy.
“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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