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Dessert

Pudding

A rich almond and raisin pudding made with cream, bread crumbs, macaroons, beef suet, marrow, and Cognac.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almond base

  1. Blanch the Jordan and bitter almonds.

  2. Beat them into a smooth paste.

  3. Gradually pour ¾ pint of boiling cream into the almonds.

  4. Strain the mixture through a cloth.

  5. Heat ½ pint of the strained cream.

  6. Pour the heated cream over 4 ounces of bread-crumbs.

  7. Cover the mixture and let it cool.

Mix the pudding

  1. Mix in the crushed macaroons, minced beef suet, marrow, flour, pounded sugar, dried cherries, Muscatel raisins, candied citron, salt, grated nutmeg, egg yolks, and lemon rind.

  2. Stir in the Cognac brandy gradually.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered 1-quart mold, filling it to the brim.

  2. Cover the mold with buttered writing paper.

  3. Cover with a floured cloth.

  4. Tie the cloth securely.

  5. Boil for 4 hours and 15 minutes.

  6. Let the pudding stand for 2 minutes before turning it out.

  7. Serve with German 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and enrich it, helping the pudding set firm when cooked.
Bread-crumbs
Soak up the hot cream to give the pudding body and a soft, tender crumb.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the boiled pudding moist and tender.
Marrow
Adds fat and richness, contributing to a moist, rich texture.
Flour
Provides structure, helping the pudding hold its shape after boiling.
Pounded sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the fats and almonds.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 hours and 15 minutes. A long, gentle boil cooks the egg-and-crumb mixture evenly through and sets it firm. Keep the cloth tied securely so water cannot enter and dilute the pudding, and keep the water steadily boiling so the pudding stays moist.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, cream, bread, beef, flour, sugar, raisin):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, cream, bread, beef, flour, sugar, raisin. 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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