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Dessert

College Puddings

A sweet pudding made with eggs, flour, suet, currants, and spices, fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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College Puddings

Why it works: Nutmeg and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

College Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs together in a quart basin until well combined.

  2. Add the flour, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar; mix into a smooth batter.

  3. Stir in the chopped suet and currants until well combined.

  4. If desired, add brandy or white wine for extra flavor.

Fry and fill

  1. Heat butter or lard in a pan and fry until light brown, rolling in a little flour afterward.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and pour the mixture into patty pans for baking.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 20 minutes or until set.

  2. Add an extra egg or milk for a richer texture if desired.

  3. Serve with white 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and set into a firm, sliceable structure when baked.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter holds its shape as it sets.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the puddings rich and tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the crust brown.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. Egg proteins set as the batter heats, firming the puddings. Underbaking leaves a wet, loose centre, while overbaking dries the batter and makes it crumbly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, brandy, butter):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, brandy, butter. 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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