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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with stale sponge cake, fruit, ratafias, custard, and spirit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the sugar in the milk.

  2. Beat the eggs and add them to the warm milk (not boiling).

  3. Let the mixture cool, then stir in the spirit and cream.

Assemble

  1. Cut the cake into thin slices and butter a quart mold.

  2. Decorate the mold with 3 ounces of fruit.

  3. Layer the cake, fruit, ratafias, and custard in the mold until full.

  4. Let it stand for 1 hour to soak.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover with buttered writing paper and tie a cloth over it.

  2. Steam over fast-boiling water for 1.5 hours.

  3. Turn out carefully and serve.

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

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

  2. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook gently, binding the pudding together.
Sponge cake
Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, carrying the sugar and eggs.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, smoother texture to the custard.
Candied fruit
Adds sweetness and bright flavor, and decorates the mold.
Ratafias
Add a concentrated almond aroma and a slightly chewy crumb.

The step that matters

Add the eggs to warm, not boiling, milk. Eggs thicken when heated gently. If the milk is boiling, the eggs can scramble, leaving a grainy custard instead of a smooth one that sets evenly when steamed.

“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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