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Dessert

Persimmon Pudding

A baked pudding made with mashed persimmons, eggs, sugar, milk, butter, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Persimmon Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Mash the persimmons and rub them through a coarse sieve or fine colander.

  2. In a bowl, combine the mashed persimmons, beaten eggs, sugar, sweet milk, and small bits of butter.

  3. Add ground cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.

  4. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a baking dish and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Persimmon + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Persimmon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Persimmons
Provide the main fruit flavor and moisture, giving the pudding its body.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Flour
Adds structure, thickening the batter so it holds together after baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface during baking.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour. Adding too much flour makes the batter stiff and dense, while too little leaves the pudding loose and unable to set. Measure gradually until the batter is stiff but still pourable, so the baked pudding holds its shape with a tender crumb.

Swap the persimmon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Persimmonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour. 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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