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Dessert

Buttermilk Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, buttermilk, sugar, lemon, grated roll, nutmeg, almonds, butter, cream, eggs, wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the curd

  1. Warm the new milk in a pot.

  2. Stir in the buttermilk and drain the curd through a sieve.

  3. Pound the curd in a mortar until dry.

Make the pudding and bake

  1. Mix in sugar, boiled lemon, grated roll, nutmeg, almonds, warm butter, cream, egg yolks, and egg whites until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into well-buttered small cups or bowls.

  3. Bake until set, about 30-40 minutes, and serve immediately with pudding 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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

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

  5. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk
Its acidity curdles the warm milk, forming the curd that gives the pudding its body.
Egg yolks
They enrich the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Egg whites
They add structure and lift, helping the pudding set firm and hold its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding a tender, fatty mouthfeel.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and contributes to browning on the surface during baking.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the pudding smoother and more tender.

The step that matters

Pounding the curd until dry. Excess whey left in the curd would make the pudding watery and prevent it from setting firmly. Draining and pressing the curd removes liquid so the egg proteins can form a stable, sliceable set when baked.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, buttermilk, sugar, nutmeg, almond, butter, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, buttermilk, sugar, nutmeg, almond, butter, cream. 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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