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Dessert

Sally Lunn Pudding

A pudding made by soaking a Sally Lunn cake in boiling milk, then baking with egg, wine, spice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Sally Lunn Pudding

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sally Lunn Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the cake

  1. Scoop out a piece from the underside of the Sally Lunn cake without injuring the upper crust and replace it.

  2. Place the cake in a basin that will just hold it.

  3. Pour boiling milk over the cake.

  4. Let the cake soak for three hours.

Add the custard mixture

  1. Turn the cake out and mix the beaten egg, white wine, spice, and sugar together.

  2. Remove the piece previously cut out.

  3. Stir in the mixture and replace the piece carefully.

Boil and serve

  1. Butter the basin you will boil it in.

  2. If the basin is not full, fill it with bread crumbs.

  3. Boil for 45 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sally lunn cake
Forms the base structure, soaking up the milk until it turns soft and moist.
Milk
Softens the cake and, combined with the egg, helps form a tender, custard-like texture.
Egg
Sets during boiling, binding the soaked cake into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the acidity of the wine.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, soaked cake.

The step that matters

Let the cake soak for three hours. The cake must absorb the hot milk fully and evenly; if it soaks too briefly, dry patches remain and the pudding will be crumbly rather than moist and tender.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, white wine, sugar, butter, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, white wine, sugar, butter, bread. 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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