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Dessert

Neapolitan Pudding

A layered steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, eggs, lemon, sponge cake, almond macaroons, jelly, sherry, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Neapolitan 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 custard

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk.

  2. Rub the Cottolene and sugar together.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks, soaked bread crumbs, lemon juice, and rind. Beat to a smooth paste.

Layer in the mold

  1. Grease a mold well.

  2. Add a layer of dry bread crumbs at the bottom.

  3. Layer macaroons evenly on top. Wet the macaroons with sherry.

  4. Cover with a layer of the mixture.

  5. Add slices of sponge cake spread with jelly.

  6. Repeat layers of macaroons, wet with sherry, custard, sponge cake, and jam until the mold is full.

  7. Finish with a layer of the mixture on top.

Steam, turn out and serve

  1. Cover. Steam in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. Remove the cover to brown the top.

  3. Carefully turn out onto a dish.

  4. Pour over warmed currant jelly mixed with 2 tablespoons melted butter and a splash of pale sherry.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the custard and set during steaming to give a firm, sliceable body.
Bread crumbs
Soaked crumbs add bulk and body to the custard, helping it hold together when steamed.
Macaroons
Almond macaroons soaked in sherry soften and add flavour and a tender, moist texture between layers.
Sponge cake
Sponge cake soaks up the sherry and custard, adding a light, moist crumb to each layer.
Jelly or jam
Fruit jelly adds sweetness and a glossy, fruity layer that contrasts the custard.
Cottolene
Melted fat enriches the custard, giving it a richer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Steam until just set, then brown the top. Steaming gently sets the egg custard without curdling it, while the uncovered browning step adds colour. Overheating or over-steaming can make the custard watery or rubbery.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Peasfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Cocoafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, lemon, egg, sherry, wine. 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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