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Dessert

A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with sponge biscuits, ratifias, cherries, sugar, vanilla or lemon, cream, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

  1. Butter a mold thickly.

  2. Decorate the mold with dried cherries or stoned muscatel raisins.

Make the custard

  1. Layer ¼ lb of sliced sponge biscuits and ¼ lb of ratifias.

  2. Add 3 oz of sugar, vanilla or lemon rind, and bruised almonds.

  3. Mix in ¾ pint of thin cream or a cream and milk mixture.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Pour the mixture into well-beaten egg yolks and egg whites when nearly cold.

  6. Gradually add ⅓ cup of brandy.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour gently into the mold.

  2. Steam or boil the pudding 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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

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

  4. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

  5. 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

Sponge biscuits
Soak up the custard and form the body of the pudding.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and enrich it as it sets.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the pudding set with a softer texture.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the custard a smooth texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs and cream.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the eggs when nearly cold. If the custard base is too hot, the egg yolks and whites can scramble or curdle instead of blending smoothly. Letting it cool slightly first keeps the custard smooth as it thickens during steaming.

“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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