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Dessert

A Cabinet Pudding

A rich pudding made with raisins, sponge cakes, macaroons, candied citron, eggs, milk, cream, and powdered sugar, steamed for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

A Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Split and stone the raisins or cherries.

  2. Arrange them in a thickly buttered quart mold.

  3. Slice the sponge cakes.

  4. Layer the sliced cakes into the mold.

  5. Add the ratifias, macaroons, and candied citron.

Make the custard

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and egg whites together.

  2. Mix the whisked eggs with the milk and strain into the cream.

  3. Sweeten the mixture with powdered sugar.

  4. Pour the sweetened mixture into the mold until full.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam or gently boil the pudding for 1 hour.

  2. Let it stand for a few minutes before serving to prevent breaking.

  3. Serve with wine or brandy 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 + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites set the custard, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable body.
Sponge cakes
Soak up the custard and hold the pudding together as a soft, absorbent base.
Raisins or dried cherries
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture in the pudding's lower layer.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the eggs set into custard, adding moisture and richness.
Sweet cream
Adds fat, richness and a smoother, softer custard texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves easily into the liquid mixture.

The step that matters

Steaming or gently boiling the pudding. Egg custard sets when heated but curdles and becomes grainy or watery if it boils hard or cooks too fast. Gentle, steady heat keeps the texture smooth and the pudding intact.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cream, sugar. 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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