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Dessert

Gooseberry Pudding

A baked pudding made with gooseberries, pulp, sugar, butter, eggs, lemon rind, and grated bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Gooseberry 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.

Prepare the pulp

  1. Scald the gooseberries and rub them smooth with the back of a spoon.

Make the pudding

  1. Measure 6 tablespoons of the pulp and combine it with sugar, melted butter, eggs, lemon rind, and grated bread. Mix well until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Gooseberry + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it into a soft, custard-like texture when baked.
Gooseberries
Provide the fruit base and tartness that give the pudding its flavour and moisture.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart gooseberry pulp and adds to the browning of the top.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and adds body so the pudding holds together.

The step that matters

Rub the gooseberries smooth. Pushing the cooked fruit through removes skins and seeds so the pudding bakes with an even, smooth texture rather than a coarse or stringy one.

Swap the gooseberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Gooseberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, lemon, bread. 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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