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Dessert

College Pudding

A breadcrumb and suet pudding with currants, citrus peel, eggs, brandy, and nutmeg, fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

College Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine breadcrumbs, suet, currants, citron peel, orange peel, sugar, and nutmeg.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and brandy, mixing well.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into balls and coat them with the beaten egg whites.

  2. Roll the balls in flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry in boiling butter or lard until golden brown, then drain on paper towels.

  2. Alternatively, place the mixture in small molds and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  3. Serve with wine or brandy 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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Breadcrumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Eggs
Yolks bind the mixture, while whites help the balls set and form a coating.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and moistens the mixture.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the pudding.

The step that matters

Frying in boiling fat until golden brown. Fat must be hot enough to brown the coated outside quickly. If it is too cool, the balls absorb grease and turn soggy before a crisp golden crust forms.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, sugar, nutmeg, egg, brandy, flour, butter):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, sugar, nutmeg, egg, brandy, flour, butter. 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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