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Dessert

Fruit Pudding

A baked fruit pudding with a sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fruit 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Add the sweet milk and eggs, mixing well.

  4. Stir in the baking soda and cooked fruit.

  5. Gradually add flour until you achieve a stiff batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until set.

  3. For the sauce, whip together the sugar, butter, and cream until light.

  4. Add flavoring to taste and serve over the pudding.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pudding as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts to lift the batter so the pudding rises and turns lighter.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the batter and the sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the butter cream to a light texture.
Cooked fruit
Adds moisture, fruit flavor and natural sweetness to the batter.
Flour
Gives the batter structure so it holds together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda and cooked fruit. Baking soda needs an acid to react and lift the batter; if it is not evenly mixed, pockets can form and the pudding may rise unevenly or taste soapy.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour, sauce, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour, sauce, cream. 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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