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Coburg Puddings

A custard-like pudding made with milk, flour, sugar, butter, currants, eggs, brandy, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Coburg Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition.

  3. Mix in the remaining ingredients.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered dairy molds or small cups.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with wine 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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, setting the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the batter cream into a light base.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the pudding rises and turns light.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter into a pourable mixture.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the butter cream to a light texture.

The step that matters

Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Adding eggs slowly lets each one emulsify fully into the creamed butter and sugar. Adding them too fast can curdle the mixture, which may weaken the rise and texture of the finished pudding.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy, nutmeg. 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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