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Dessert

Caramel Pudding

A custard pudding with caramelized sugar base and burnt brandy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Caramel Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Place the pounded sugar in a plain mold and set it on a hot plate until melted.

  2. Swirl the melted sugar around the mold to coat it.

Make and steam the pudding

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, cream, and sugar to taste.

  2. Pour the mixture into the prepared mold.

  3. Steam for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. For the sauce, combine burnt brandy and sugar, then pour it around the pudding.

  2. Serve the pudding cold for the best flavor.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set the custard and give it a rich, firm structure when steamed.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the custard a soft, smooth texture.
Pounded sugar
Melts to coat the mold with caramel, which becomes the sauce-like top layer.

The step that matters

Steam for 30 minutes. Steam heats the custard gently. Too much heat or time can make egg yolks curdle or turn the pudding rough and watery, so keep the steam gentle and the timing as written.

“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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