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German Pudding

A steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, and jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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German Pudding

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

German Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Pour boiling milk over bread crumb.

  2. Let the mixture cool on a sieve.

  3. Press the mixture in a cloth.

  4. Beat it smooth with a fork.

  5. Mix in butter, sugar, and beaten eggs.

Assemble the pudding

  1. Line a mold with a layer of the mixture half an inch thick.

  2. Cover with jam.

  3. Alternate layers until the mold is filled.

  4. Top with bread.

  5. Cover with buttered paper.

  6. Tie up.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1.5 hours.

  2. Serve with German pudding 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Milk + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,014 recipes

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumb
Forms the bulk of the pudding and absorbs the milk to give it body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during steaming to give a firm, sliceable texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the crumb texture.
Milk
Softens the bread crumb so it can be pressed and beaten smooth.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour between the layers.

The step that matters

Steam for 1.5 hours. Steaming gently at a steady heat lets the eggs set evenly through the layers. Too much heat or boiling can make the pudding rough, watery or break its structure.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, butter, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, butter, sugar, egg. 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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