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Dessert

The Penny Pudding

A pudding made from a penny roll, egg, milk, sugar, and sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

The Penny Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Soak

  1. Place the penny roll in a basin.

  2. Add the beaten egg, milk, and sugar to the roll.

  3. Let the mixture soak for 1 hour.

Cook and serve

  1. Beat the mixture well and pour it into a buttered mold.

  2. Cover the mold and boil for 25 minutes.

  3. Serve with any sweet 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. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Milk + saucetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Penny roll
Forms the bulk of the pudding and soaks up the liquid to become tender.
Egg
Sets when heated, binding the soaked roll into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and creates a soft, custard-like texture as it cooks.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly during cooking.

The step that matters

Cover the mold and boil for 25 minutes. Covering the mold traps steam so the pudding cooks evenly through without drying at the surface. The water should be kept at a steady boil, since a weak simmer can leave the centre undercooked and heavy.

“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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