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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with buttered mold, dried cherries, angelica, sponge cakes, ratafias, sugar, vanilla, cream, eggs, and brandy or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Angelica and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 170 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter the inside of a plain mold.

  2. Arrange dried cherries in a pattern all over the buttered mold.

  3. Add small slices of angelica amongst the cherries, keeping to one pattern.

  4. Cut sponge cakes into slices and add them to the mold.

  5. Add ratafias to the mold.

  6. Add lump sugar.

  7. Add vanilla to taste.

Make the custard

  1. Heat thin cream in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs well.

  3. Beat the whites of the eggs and add them to the yolks.

  4. Pour the hot cream onto the eggs. Beat the mixture.

  5. Let the mixture stand until cool.

  6. Gradually add brandy or sherry to the cream and egg mixture.

  7. Pour the mixture slowly into the mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover with buttered paper and steam the pudding gently for one hour.

  2. Serve with 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. Angelica + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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 cakes
Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the custard as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the custard and set it into a firm, sliceable pudding when steamed.
Thin cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the custard a soft, smooth texture.
Ratafias
Add almond-like flavour and soak up custard, adding texture to the pudding.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps balance the richness of the eggs and cream.
Brandy or sherry
Adds aroma and flavour to the custard.

The step that matters

Let the custard cool before adding the alcohol. Adding brandy or sherry to very hot egg mixture can curdle or cook the eggs unevenly, so letting it cool first keeps the custard smooth and evenly set when steamed.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, vanilla, cream, egg, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, vanilla, cream, egg, brandy. 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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