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Dessert

Brandy Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with brandy, cream, milk, eggs, stale rolls, macaroons, sugar, lemon rind, nutmeg, and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Brandy Pudding

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brandy Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold and decorate it with halved cherries.

  2. Line the mold with thin slices of French roll.

Layer and custard

  1. Fill the mold halfway with alternate layers of macaroons and sliced roll, adding a few cherries, brandy, and a little sugar.

  2. In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream, and milk, then add sugar, lemon rind, and a little nutmeg.

  3. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  4. Let it stand for one hour.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam gently for one and a half hours.

  2. Serve with a suitable 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the pudding holds its shape when steamed and sliced.
French rolls
Absorb the custard and brandy, giving the pudding a soft, bread-based body.
Macaroons or ratafias
Soak up liquid and add almond-like flavour and a tender, crumbly texture.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, making the custard smooth and creamy.
Milk
Thins the custard to a pourable consistency and adds moisture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warm, boozy flavour that carries through the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam gently for one and a half hours. Steaming gently keeps the egg custard tender. High heat or boiling water can make the eggs curdle and leave a rough, spongy texture.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, cream, milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, cream, milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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