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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with preserved cherries, angelica, sponge cakes, ratafias, milk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a 1½ pint mold and decorate the bottom with cherries and angelica.

  2. Break the sponge cakes and place them in the mold along with the ratafias.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, combine 4 egg yolks and 2 egg whites with the sugar.

  2. Whip lightly while gradually stirring in the milk and vanilla.

  3. Pour this mixture over the cakes in the mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mold with buttered paper and steam for about 45 minutes.

  2. Carefully turn the pudding out 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Eggs
Set the custard, binding the milk and sugar so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Sponge cakes
Form the body of the pudding, soaking up the custard as it steams.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the eggs set into a smooth, tender custard.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps it cook to a soft, even texture.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam gently and for the full time so the egg custard sets evenly without curdling or becoming watery. Overheating can make the custard grainy, while underheating leaves it runny and unable to hold its shape when turned out.

Swap the angelica

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

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

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