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Dessert

Boston Cup Pudding

A baked pudding made with flour, brown sugar, milk, baking powder, lemon rind, butter, egg, and raspberry jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Boston Cup Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Beat in the egg, then add the grated lemon rind and flour.

  3. Stir in the milk and finally the baking powder.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered Yorkshire pudding tin.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden.

  2. Once cooled, split the pudding, spread a layer of raspberry jam between the halves, 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the pudding as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Creams with the butter to add sweetness, moisture and a caramel note.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar to trap air, giving a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it bakes evenly.

The step that matters

Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy traps air bubbles that help the pudding rise and give a tender texture. Cold or melted butter will not hold this air well.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk, lemon, butter, 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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