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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with buttered mold, dried cherries, angelica, sponge cakes, ratafias, sugar, vanilla, cream, eggs, and brandy or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Angelica and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 170 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter the inside of a plain mold.

  2. Arrange dried cherries in a pattern all over the buttered mold.

  3. Place small slices of angelica amongst the cherries, maintaining the pattern.

  4. Add the sliced sponge cakes.

  5. Add the ratafias.

  6. Stir in the lump sugar.

  7. Add vanilla to taste.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the thin cream in a saucepan until warm.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs well.

  3. Beat the whites of the eggs and add to the yolks.

  4. Pour the hot cream onto the eggs, beat well, and let it cool completely.

  5. Gradually add the brandy or sherry to the cream and egg mixture.

  6. Slowly pour the mixture into the mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover with buttered paper and steam the pudding gently for one hour.

  2. Serve with wine sauce.

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. Angelica + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

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

Sponge cakes
Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the custard as it sets.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set into a tender, sliceable texture.
Egg whites
Beaten in to add lightness and help the pudding rise and hold its structure.
Thin cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the custard a smooth, soft texture.
Butter
Greases the mold so the pudding releases cleanly and browns lightly.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness to the custard and pudding.

The step that matters

Pour the hot cream onto the eggs gradually while beating well. Adding hot cream too quickly to the egg yolks can scramble them, leaving lumps instead of a smooth custard. Beating constantly and pouring slowly lets the eggs warm gently and thicken evenly.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, vanilla, cream, egg, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, vanilla, cream, egg, brandy. 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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