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Dessert

Princess Pudding

A steamed buttered pudding made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Princess Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Sift the flour with the baking powder and add it to the mixture along with the brandy.

  4. Pour the batter into a well‑buttered mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the mold in a saucepan with boiling water, ensuring the water reaches halfway up the sides.

  2. Steam for 1½ hours.

  3. Carefully turn the pudding onto a dish and serve with lemon sauce.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Adds richness and a tender, moist crumb when creamed with sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, traps air for a lighter texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set during steaming.
Royal baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the batter.

The step that matters

Keep the steaming water at the right level. The water must reach halfway up the mold and stay gently boiling. Too little water lets the pudding dry out, while a hard boil can make the pudding rough or uneven.

“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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