Skip to main content
Dessert

Hydropathic Pudding

A fruit pudding made with currants, raspberries, water, sugar, stale bread, and cream or custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Hydropathic Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fruit mixture

  1. Boil red currants and raspberries in water with sugar until soft.

Assemble the mold

  1. Cover the bottom of a mold with a thin slice of stale bread.

  2. Arrange strips of stale bread around the sides of the mold, leaving ½ inch between each strip.

  3. Pour the hot fruit mixture into the mold.

  4. Add some juice.

  5. Cover with small dice of stale bread.

  6. Place a plate with a weight on top.

  7. Leave in a cool place overnight.

Unmould and serve

  1. Turn out the pudding the next day.

  2. Pour the remaining syrup over it to soak in.

  3. Whip the cream.

  4. Spread it over the pudding just before serving, or serve with boiled custard.

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. Red currant + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together84 recipes

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

  3. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

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

  4. Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

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

  5. Red currant + creamtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Red currants
Provide tart flavour and juice that colours and sets the pudding.
Raspberries
Add fruity aroma and sweetness along with pectin that helps the mixture set.
Stale bread slices
Absorb the fruit juice and syrup, firming into a soft, sliceable structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps preserve its colour and texture.
Cream or boiled custard
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy contrast to the tart fruit.

The step that matters

Leave in a cool place overnight under a weight. The bread must soak up the fruit juice and the weight must press the layers together. Pressing and resting give the pudding time to firm, so it holds its shape when turned out.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, cream. 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipes