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Dessert

Buckingham Pudding

A steamed pudding made with ratafias, sponge cakes, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Buckingham Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold.

  2. Press the ratafias all over the mold.

  3. Layer in the sponge cakes cut into slices.

  4. Add more ratafias and sponge cakes until the mold is almost full.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs and the whites of 2 eggs together.

  2. Boil the milk and pour it over the eggs, letting it cool slightly.

  3. Add sugar and vanilla flavoring to the mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover with buttered paper and steam for about 1 hour.

  2. Carefully turn it out and serve with jam or sauce.

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. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Bind the custard and set it into a firm, sliceable pudding as it steams.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that soaks into the cakes and biscuits.
Sponge cakes
Provide the absorbent body that soaks up the custard and holds the pudding's shape.
Ratafias
Add a crisp, almond-flavored layer that softens slightly as the custard soaks in.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Letting the milk cool slightly before pouring it over the eggs. Pouring boiling milk straight onto eggs can scramble them, leaving streaks of cooked egg instead of a smooth custard. Cooling it briefly lets the eggs thicken gently and evenly during steaming.

“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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