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Dessert

Tansey Pudding

A sweet pudding made with Jordan almonds, rose syrup, French roll crumbs, nutmeg, brandy, tansey juice, butter, citron slices, cream, lemon juice, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Tansey Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and finely pound the Jordan almonds.

Make the pudding

  1. In a stewpan, combine the almonds, rose syrup, French roll crumbs, nutmeg, brandy, tansey juice, butter, and citron slices.

  2. Pour in the boiling cream or milk and sweeten to taste.

  3. Once cooled, mix in the lemon juice and beaten eggs.

  4. Cook the pudding by boiling or baking.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give the pudding its body as they cook.
Cream or milk
Provides moisture and richness, forming the liquid base of the custard.
French roll
Crumbs soak up liquid and add bulk, giving the pudding a tender structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the custard.

The step that matters

Cook the pudding by boiling or baking. Beaten eggs thicken and set when heated gently, but too much heat can curdle them into a grainy texture. Keeping the heat controlled gives a smooth, set pudding.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, rose, syrup, brandy, butter, cream, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, rose, syrup, brandy, butter, cream, sugar. 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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