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Dessert

Bain-marie Pudding

A custard pudding steamed in a bain-marie, topped with a fruit‑scented cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Bain-marie Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine 1 quart of milk and 6 ounces of sugar in a clean saucepan and heat until reduced to 1 pint.

  2. Set aside ½ cup of the sweetened milk for the sauce.

  3. When the milk is nearly cold, gradually mix in the yolks of 5 eggs and the whites of 3 eggs.

Steam and serve

  1. Strain the mixture into a mold and steam for 30 minutes in a saucepan with boiling water, ensuring no water enters the mold.

  2. Remove from steam and let it stand for a few minutes before turning out.

  3. Heat the reserved ½ cup of milk with the juice of delicate fruit in a saucepan until boiling.

  4. Stir in a little cream and pour over the pudding before serving.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 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
Yolks and whites set into a firm, tender custard when gently steamed.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and body of the custard, and the sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds softness to its texture.

The step that matters

Steam without letting water into the mold. Water entering the mold dilutes the custard and can make it watery or uneven. Steaming gently in a covered bath keeps the egg proteins setting slowly and evenly, avoiding curdling or a pitted texture.

“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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