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Dessert

Sponge Pudding

A baked pudding made from sponge cakes soaked in sherry or brandy, milk, egg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,479 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Sponge Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Slice the sponge cakes lengthwise, then cut them across.

  2. Place the pieces in a pie dish and pour the sherry or brandy over them.

Soak and bake

  1. Beat the egg, then add the milk and caster sugar, and pour this mixture over the sponge cakes.

  2. Let it soak for five minutes.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for twenty 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. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sponge cakes or rusks
Form the base of the pudding and soak up the custard as it bakes.
Egg
Sets the milk mixture into a custard that holds the pudding together.
Milk
Makes the custard that softens the sponge and bakes into a moist texture.
Sherry or brandy
Adds aroma and flavour and further moistens the sponge cakes.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds flavour.

The step that matters

Soaking the sponge before baking. The sponge must absorb the custard evenly before baking. Dry patches stay dense, while the egg proteins in the custard set as the pudding heats, so the soak time gives the sponge a chance to take up the liquid first.

“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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