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
Butter a mold or basin for boiling the pudding.
Stew the candied peel and raisins at the bottom of the mold.
Layer and fill
Layer sponge cake slices on top, adding melted butter on each side and scattering currants over the cake.
Repeat layering until the dish is nearly full.
Flavor the milk with grated lemon peel, then add the beaten eggs and sugar.
Beat the mixture thoroughly and strain it into the mold until full.
Boil and serve
Let the pudding stand for 2 hours.
Cover the top with a cloth or lid, then set in boiling water and boil for 1 hour.
Let it stand for a few minutes after boiling before removing the cover.
Turn the pudding out of the mold quickly and serve with 'Truit Sauce' or 'Wine Sauce.'
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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,742 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Set the custard and bind the pudding into a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
- Sponge cake
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up the custard as it sets.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard base that sets around the cake when cooked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and milk.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the cake layers.
The step that matters
Boiling the pudding. Eggs set into a custard only when heated gently but steadily; the mold must be covered and kept at a full boil so the custard cooks through without becoming pockmarked or watery in the centre.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, butter, milk, lemon, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, butter, milk, lemon, egg, 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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