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Dessert

Plain Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, eggs, flour, butter, sugar, water, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Plain 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. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately in a bowl.

Make the pudding

  1. Combine the milk, beaten egg yolks, flour, and salt in a buttered pan.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

Make the sauce and finish

  1. In a saucepan combine sugar, butter, and water; cook until thickened.

  2. Stir in the beaten eggs while cooking for a few minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the sherry wine while hot.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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
Egg yolks set the custard and whites are beaten separately, adding structure and lightness.
Flour
Starch thickens the milk mixture so it holds its shape when set.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding and, once heated, sets with the eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the sauce its body as it cooks.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a touch of acidity when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs while cooking. Eggs thicken when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the eggs can scramble and leave lumps. Keep the heat moderate and stir steadily.

“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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