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Dessert

Marble Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, eggs, sugar, butter, and chocolate, folded to create a marbled appearance.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Marble Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together three times.

  2. Beat the egg yolks.

  3. Add the sugar, cold water, and melted butter; stir into the sifted ingredients.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Divide the mixture into two parts.

  6. Add the melted chocolate to one part.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the two mixtures into a buttered mold to create a marbled effect.

  2. Steam for 45 minutes.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + chocolatetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding as its starch and gluten set during steaming.
Eggs
Bind the batter and, with their whites folded in, add lightness and structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the pudding rises and turns light.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the crumb.
Melted chocolate
Gives the darker swirls their flavor and color, creating the marbled effect.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only if they are beaten to stiff foam and folded gently. Stirring them vigorously knocks out the air, leaving a dense pudding instead of a light one.

“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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