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Dessert

Conservative Pudding

A steamed pudding made with Savoy biscuits, Ratafias, apricot jam, rum, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and apricot work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 149 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Conservative Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a souffle tin well.

  2. Layer the Savoy biscuits and Ratafias in the tin, adding a little apricot jam between each layer.

  3. Pour the rum over the layers and let it soak in well.

Steam and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk and eggs thoroughly, then pour over the soaked biscuits.

  2. Cover the tin with greased paper and steam for 1 hour.

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. Rum + apricottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

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

  3. Rum + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Biscuit + apricottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Biscuit + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the milk custard as they cook, binding the soaked biscuits into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Savoy biscuits
Form the sponge-like base that soaks up the rum and custard.
Ratafias
Add almond-flavoured crumb that soaks up liquid and adds layered texture.
Rum or brandy
Soaks into the biscuits and adds aroma and warm flavour.
Milk
Forms the liquid custard that sets with the eggs and moistens the biscuits.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam gently cooks the egg and milk custard so it sets evenly without curdling or becoming rubbery. Covering the tin keeps moisture in, so the pudding stays tender rather than dry.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, egg, rum, milk. 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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