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Dessert

Saxon Pudding

A layered dessert of sponge cake, macaroon, ratafias, almonds, cherries, and a custard made with eggs, milk, cream, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Saxon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch, peel, shred, and bake the almonds until nicely browned.

Assemble the mold

  1. Butter a plain charlotte mold and decorate the bottom with halves of cherries and strips of angelica.

  2. Sprinkle the sides thickly with the prepared almonds.

  3. Fill the mold with alternate layers of slices of sponge cake, pieces of macaroon, and ratafias.

Set and serve

  1. Beat the eggs well, then add the milk and cream, and mix thoroughly.

  2. Pour the egg mixture over the layered ingredients in the mold.

  3. Chill until set, then 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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Almond + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

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

  4. Angelica + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the custard and set firm when chilled, holding the layers together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, moistening the cake and macaroon layers.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a softer, smoother texture.
Sponge cakes
Absorb the custard as it sets, giving the pudding its body and soft texture.
Macaroons
Soak up the custard and add almond flavour and a chewy texture between layers.

The step that matters

Chill until set. The custard needs enough time in the cold to set fully; serving too early leaves a runny pudding that will not hold its shape when turned out of the mold.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, cream, sherry, almond, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cream, sherry, almond, vanilla. 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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