Skip to main content
Dessert

Candy Pudding

A sweet pudding made with raisins, figs, citron, almonds, sugar, and vinegar, cooked into a stiff paste and set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Candy Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sugar paste

  1. Moisten the sugar with strong vinegar, being careful not to make it too wet.

  2. Boil this mixture until it stiffens to a paste when dropped on a plate.

  3. Remove from the stove and beat until it reaches the consistency of stiff cream.

Shape and set

  1. Add the fruit and mix well.

  2. Turn the mixture into a towel that has been wrung out of cold water.

  3. Roll it evenly and tightly.

  4. Let it stand for a few hours, then slice.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet paste that sets firm into the pudding's body when cooled.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the finished slices.
Figs
Contribute soft, chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts the soft fruit and paste.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar and vinegar to the paste stage. Boiling must stop when the mixture stiffens to a paste. Undercooked sugar stays too soft to hold its shape when rolled and sliced, while overcooked sugar becomes hard and brittle.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, almond, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, almond, sugar, vinegar. 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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes