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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, cake crumbs, eggs, raisins, candied peel, ginger, butter, and topped with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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

Make the custard base

  1. Bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Stir in the cake crumbs and mix for a few minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks, raisins, candied peel, crystallized ginger, and butter. Mix thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a well-buttered bag.

  2. Cook for 45 minutes, reducing the heat by half a few minutes after placing the pudding in.

  3. Beat the egg whites with a little sifted sugar and essence of vanilla until stiff.

  4. Pile the egg white mixture on top of the pudding and serve immediately.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cake crumbs soak up and thicken.
Cake crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the pudding its body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and set the pudding, giving it a rich, tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to form a light topping that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Reducing the heat during cooking. Cooking at a steady high heat can cause egg-based puddings to toughen or curdle. Lowering the heat after a few minutes allows the egg yolks to set gently and evenly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, raisin, butter, sugar, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, raisin, butter, sugar, vanilla. 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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