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Muffin Pudding with Dried Cherries

A pudding made from muffins soaked in milk, cherries, brandy, and spices, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Muffin Pudding with Dried Cherries

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Place the muffins in a pan.

  2. Strain 1½ cups of boiled milk over the muffins, adding lemon peel and sugar to taste.

  3. Once cold, mash the muffins with a wooden spoon.

Mix and cook

  1. Add the dried cherries, brandy, nutmeg, pounded almonds, and beaten eggs.

  2. Mix everything together thoroughly.

  3. Boil in a basin or bake in a dish lined with pastry.

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Muffins
Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the milk to create a soft body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when cooked, giving the pudding its structure.
Milk
Moistens the muffins and helps form a soft, custard-like texture.
Dried cherries
Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.
Sweet almonds
Add richness and a nutty flavour while contributing body to the mixture.

The step that matters

Mash the muffins once cold. Mashing while the milk is still hot can leave the muffins gummy or uneven. Letting them cool first lets the crumb absorb the milk and break down evenly, so the mixture blends smoothly with the eggs.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, almond, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, brandy, nutmeg, almond, egg. 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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