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Dessert

Carrot Pudding

A baked dish of grated carrots mixed with bread crumbs, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, nutmeg, wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,424 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Carrot Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Grate the red part of the raw carrots.

  2. Mix the grated carrots with double the weight of bread crumbs or Naples biscuits.

Bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine the carrots and crumbs with milk or cream, beaten eggs, softened butter, sugar, nutmeg, white wine, and ratafia or brandy.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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. Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Provide the bulk and sweetness that give the pudding its body and flavor.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the pudding into a firm, sliceable custard.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding structure and a soft, tender crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a smooth, tender texture.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping form a creamy custard with the eggs.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding loose and wet in the centre, while overbaking can make it dry and rubbery.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg, white wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg, white wine. 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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