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Dessert

Quaking Pudding

A steamed bread pudding made with stale bread crumbs, raisins, currants, eggs, milk, and a butter-sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Quaking Pudding

Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Quaking Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold or pan thoroughly with 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Sprinkle currants on the bottom and sides of the mold.

Make the pudding

  1. In a bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, salt, and nutmeg, then add milk.

  2. Layer bread crumbs and raisins alternately in the mold.

  3. Pour the egg mixture over the layers.

  4. Cover and let stand for 2 hours.

  5. Steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, beat ½ cup butter and 1 cup powdered sugar until light and creamy.

  2. Add ¼ cup cream or milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract, mixing well.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the custard and set the pudding as it steams, giving it structure.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the egg and milk mixture to form the body of the pudding.
Milk
Hydrates the bread and forms the liquid custard that keeps the pudding moist.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture through the layers.
Butter
Adds richness and a creamy, smooth texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Steaming gently at a steady heat lets the egg custard set through the bread without curdling or boiling. Too much heat can make the pudding rubbery or leave it watery in the center.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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