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Dessert

Viennese Pudding

A sweet bread pudding made with raisins, candied peel, sherry, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Viennese Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel milk

  1. In a small dry saucepan, melt the lump sugar until it browns.

  2. Add the milk to the browned sugar and stir until the milk is brown.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Cut the bread into small square pieces and place them in a bowl.

  2. Rub the raisins with a dry towel and add them to the bread.

  3. Add the chopped candied peel and soft sugar to the bowl.

  4. Pour the sherry over the dry ingredients.

  5. In a separate bowl, lightly mix the egg yolks and strain the brown milk over them.

  6. Combine all ingredients and add the vanilla.

Steam

  1. Grease a mold well and pour the mixture in.

  2. Cover the top with a piece of paper and steam for 1.5 hours.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Bread crumbs
Forms the bulk of the pudding and soaks up the liquid to give it body.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and enrich it, helping it set as it steams.
Milk
Adds moisture and, once browned with sugar, a caramel flavour.
Sultana raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture as they plump in the moist mixture.
Sherry
Adds moisture and a rich, aromatic flavour.

The step that matters

Browning the lump sugar and milk. Sugar caramelises at high heat and can turn bitter or burn quickly if left unattended. Stop once it is a clear brown, because overcooked caramel tastes acrid and darkens the milk too much.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, sherry, milk, egg, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, sherry, milk, egg, vanilla. 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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