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Crayfish Pudding

A savory pudding made from boiled crayfish, butter, anchovies, eggs, and soaked bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Crayfish Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crayfish

  1. Boil the crayfish with salt and vinegar, then remove the flesh from the tails and claws.

  2. In a mortar, combine the crayfish flesh, butter, and anchovies; pound well and rub through a fine sieve.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, break in one egg at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  2. Add the soaked French roll crumbs and mix thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Grease a mold with clarified butter using a pastry brush.

  2. Pour the crayfish mixture into the mold and place it in a saucepan of boiling water, filling the water halfway up the mold.

  3. Cover the saucepan and place some lighted charcoal on the cover; cook for one hour.

  4. Turn the pudding out onto a dish and serve with red Italian sauce around the edge.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Crayfish + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together195 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Crayfish + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
Bind the mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Crayfish
Provide the main flavor and the bulk of the pudding's texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the mixture.
French roll crumbs
Soaked in cream, they add moisture and lightness to the pudding.
Anchovies
Add a salty, savory depth that enhances the crayfish flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the pudding gently in a water bath. Eggs set into a delicate custard-like texture when heated slowly. Boiling water surrounding the mold moderates heat, so the pudding cooks evenly without curdling, becoming rough or watery.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crayfish, vinegar, butter, egg, cream, sauce):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against crayfish, vinegar, butter, egg, cream, sauce. 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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