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Dessert

Honey Pudding

A steamed pudding made with honey, breadcrumbs, butter, florador, eggs, lemon rind, ginger, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Honey Pudding

Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Honey Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the florador in the milk for 10 minutes.

  2. Pour the mixture over the breadcrumbs.

Make the pudding

  1. Add the honey, lemon rind, ginger, warmed butter, and the yolks of the eggs, and beat well.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Turn the mixture into a well-buttered mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam gently for 1 to 2 hours and serve with a suitable 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Honey + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Honey + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,327 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the pudding, while whisked whites add lightness when folded in.
Breadcrumbs
Form the body of the pudding, soaking up the liquid to create a soft, tender crumb.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the pudding stay soft and tender.
Florador
Cooked in milk to thicken the liquid, giving the pudding a smooth, set structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly whisked whites trap air that gives the pudding its lightness. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the foam and leaves a dense result.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, butter, egg, lemon, milk. 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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