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Dessert

Frozen Cabinet Pudding

A chilled pudding made with macaroons, sponge fingers, coconut cakes, currants, custard, milk, eggs, sugar, gelatin, and vanilla or wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Frozen Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Wet a melon mold in cold water and sprinkle the sides and bottom with currants.

  2. Arrange layers of the mixed cakes, sprinkling with currants between layers until all are used.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat 1½ pints of milk.

  2. Beat together 4 eggs and 2 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. When the milk is hot, stir in the soaked gelatin and then add the beaten egg and sugar mixture.

  4. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from heat and add ¼ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla or 2 tablespoons wine.

  6. Pour this mixture over the cake a few spoons at a time.

Chill and serve

  1. Set aside to cool, then cover with thick white paper and place the tin cover on top.

  2. Pack the mold in salt and ice for 4 to 6 hours.

  3. At serving time, wipe the mold free of salt and ice, dip it briefly in warm water, remove the cover and paper, and turn out.

  4. Serve with quince 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. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  5. Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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
Beaten eggs thicken the custard as they cook and set it around the cakes.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and softness.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Macaroons
Dry, porous cakes that soak up custard and give the pudding its structure and flavor.
Sponge fingers
Absorb custard and add a light, tender crumb to the layers.
Coconut cakes
Absorb custard and add sweetness and coconut flavor to the layers.

The step that matters

Cook the custard for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Eggs thicken as they heat but can scramble if overheated or left unstirred, leaving a grainy custard that will not set smoothly around the cakes.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla):

  1. Bananafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla. 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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