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Dessert

Alexandra Pudding

A steamed custard pudding made with eggs, sugar, milk, cream, and vanilla, served with red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Alexandra Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. In a bowl, combine the yolks of 5 eggs with the sugar, milk, and cream.

  2. Whip the whites of the eggs until slightly frothy, then add the vanilla and gently fold into the yolk mixture.

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a 1‑pint mold and line the bottom with 3 rounds of buttered paper.

  2. Strain the mixture into the mold and cover the top with stiff paper.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. Once cooked, cool the mold in ice.

  3. Carefully turn out the pudding and serve it garnished with red currant jelly.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Yolks and whites set the custard and give the pudding its structure as it steams.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the pudding a softer, smoother texture.
Milk
Provides liquid that sets with the eggs into a tender custard.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps give it a fine, smooth texture.

The step that matters

Fold the whites gently into the yolk mixture. Whipped egg whites hold air that lightens the custard. Overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving a denser pudding.

“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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