Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mold
Grease a plain mold with butter and decorate the sides with dried cherries and candied citron.
Layer slices of sponge cake and macaroons in the mold alternately.
Make and steam
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, milk or cream, sugar, and grated lemon rind until combined.
Pour the lemon custard mixture into the mold, filling it up.
Steam the pudding for about 1.5 hours.
Serve
Serve the pudding with custard.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Set the custard, giving the pudding a rich, firm but tender body.
- Milk or cream
- Provides liquid that gives the custard its smooth, soft texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks and cream.
- Sponge cake
- Soaks up the custard, forming the soft, bread-like body of the pudding.
- Macaroons
- Add chewy texture and almond sweetness that contrast with the soft custard.
The step that matters
Steam the pudding for about 1.5 hours. Gentle, steady steam heats the egg custard slowly so it sets smooth and tender. Overheating makes the eggs curdle and turn grainy and watery.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, milk, sugar. 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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