Name: A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients: ½ cup dried cherries; ¼ pound sponge biscuits, sliced; ¼ pound ratifias; ⅜ cup sugar; 1 vanilla pod (or thin rind of ½ lemon and 6 bitter almonds, bruised); ¾ pint thin cream (or cream and new milk mixed); 6 egg yolks; 2 egg whites; ⅓ cup brandy

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

Butter a mold and decorate it with dried cherries or stoned muscatel raisins.
Layer in the sponge biscuits and ratifias.
Add the sugar and flavor with vanilla or lemon rind and bruised almonds.

Make the custard

Heat the cream and pour it over the beaten egg yolks and egg whites.
Let the mixture cool slightly, then gradually stir in the brandy.

Steam and serve

Pour the mixture into the mold and steam or boil gently for 1 hour.
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.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Biscuit + vanillatop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together422 recipes

Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

Egg yolks: Thicken the custard and enrich it, so it sets soft and smooth when steamed.
Egg whites: Add air and structure, helping the pudding set light rather than dense.
Sponge biscuits: Soak up the custard and form the body of the pudding.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, giving the custard a tender texture.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and balances the eggs and brandy.
Brandy: Adds aroma and flavor, and is stirred in once the mixture has cooled slightly.

The step that matters

Stir in the brandy only after the mixture cools slightly. Alcohol added to very hot custard can evaporate or curdle the eggs, and the eggs can scramble if the cream is too hot when poured over them. Cooling slightly protects the smooth set.

“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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A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding