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Dessert

A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with sponge biscuits, dried cherries, cream, eggs, brandy, and flavored with vanilla or lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold thickly, then decorate it with dried cherries or stoned muscatel raisins.

  2. Layer ½ lb of sponge biscuits in the mold.

  3. Layer 4 oz of ratifias on top.

  4. Add 3 oz of sugar.

Make the custard

  1. Flavor with vanilla or lemon rind and bruised almonds.

  2. Heat ¾ pint of thin cream until hot.

  3. Strain the hot cream into the well-beaten yolks of 6 eggs and the whites of 2 eggs.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

  5. Gradually stir in ⅓ cup of brandy.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture gently into the mold.

  2. Steam or boil softly for 1 hour.

  3. Serve with a well-made 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Biscuit + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together422 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  4. Cream + sugartop 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

Eggs
Set the custard into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Sponge biscuits
Form the soft bulk that soaks up the custard.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the custard.
Ratifias
Add crisp almond-flavored crumbs that give contrast to the soft custard.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor depth to the custard.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture gently into the mold and steam or boil softly. Egg custard sets when heated gently; a hard boil or high heat can curdle it and leave the pudding rough and watery. Gentle, steady heat keeps the texture smooth and tender.

“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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