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 ↓
Dresden Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 180°F (80°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the pudding
Heat the milk to about 180°F (80°C).
Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, brandy, and rennet.
Pour the mixture into a deep dish and set aside until it firms up.
Finish and serve
Once set, cover the surface with whipped or clotted cream.
Sprinkle with a little cinnamon or nutmeg and serve.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,199 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,738 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Milk
- Forms the body of the pudding, which sets into a soft custard-like curd.
- Prepared rennet
- Enzyme that coagulates the milk so it sets into a firm, tender curd.
- Castor sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the savoury notes of the rennet-set milk.
- Brandy
- Adds aroma and a warm flavour note to the pudding.
The step that matters
Remove from heat before adding the rennet. Rennet works best in milk that has cooled to lukewarm; adding it to very hot milk can destroy the enzyme, so the pudding may fail to set.
“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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