Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mold
Butter the inside of a 1.5 pint mold with your fingers.
Decorate the bottom of the mold with cherries or raisins and pieces of angelica.
Break the sponge cakes into pieces and fill the mold halfway with them and the ratafias.
Make the custard
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, egg whites, and sugar until light.
Gradually stir in the milk and add the essence of vanilla.
Pour the mixture over the cake pieces in the mold.
Steam and serve
Cover the top of the mold with a piece of buttered paper.
Place the mold in a saucepan half full of boiling water and steam for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Ensure the water reaches halfway up the mold to prevent boiling over.
Carefully turn the pudding out onto a hot dish to serve.
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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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Angelica + vanillatop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together170 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + angelicatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together49 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together782 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Eggs
- Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its structure and body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that soaks into the cake pieces.
- Sponge cakes
- Absorb the custard and form the soft, tender body of the pudding.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps it whisk to a light, airy texture.
The step that matters
Steaming with water halfway up the mold. Gentle steaming cooks the custard evenly without boiling it. Keeping the water at the mold's halfway point lets heat reach the custard while preventing boiling water from spilling into the pudding and making it watery or uneven.
Swap the angelica
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, vanilla, egg, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Angelicathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, vanilla, egg, milk. 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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