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Jam Sponge Pudding

A steamed sponge pudding flavored with apricot jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Jam Sponge Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the margarine and sugar together.

  2. Add the whisked eggs and mix well.

  3. Stir in the flour and then the baking powder.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased mold, filling it about three-quarters full.

  2. Steam for 1 ½ hours.

  3. Turn out the pudding and pour warmed apricot jam over it.

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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + apricottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + apricottop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,068 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten structure that gives the sponge its body.
Margarine
Adds fat for a tender crumb and moisture in the sponge.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the pudding rises.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps creaming trap air in the batter.
Apricot jam
Adds fruity sweetness and a glossy finish on top of the pudding.

The step that matters

Filling the mold about three-quarters full. The batter rises as the baking powder releases gas during steaming. Overfilling can cause it to spill or steam unevenly, while underfilling can make a dense pudding.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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