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Cabinet Pudding, Plain

A steamed bread pudding made with sliced bread, milk, eggs, sugar, raisins, and almond essence.

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

Cabinet Pudding, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the raisins in half and remove the stones.

  2. Cut the crusts off the bread and divide each slice into strips 1 inch wide, tapering one end. Trim the strips to a uniform length.

Assemble

  1. Butter a basin well, decorate the bottom with raisins, and line it with the bread strips.

  2. Beat the eggs, then add the sugar, milk, and flavoring, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Cut the bread trimmings into dice and place them in the prepared basin.

  4. Pour the custard mixture over the bread, cover with greased paper, and steam gently for 1 hour.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its body.
Bread
Forms the structure of the pudding, soaking up the custard as it steams.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the custard that sets around the bread.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps it blend smoothly into the milk and eggs.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and pockets of flavor in the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Steam gently. Eggs set when heated, so a gentle steam keeps the custard smooth and tender. Vigorous boiling can make it curdle or turn spongy and full of holes.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, sugar, raisin. 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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