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Dessert

Quaking Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with cream, eggs, flour, sugar, nutmeg, boiled in a cloth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Quaking Pudding

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Quaking Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the cream until almost cold.

  2. Beat the eggs with the flour until very fine.

  3. Mix the egg mixture with the cream.

  4. Add sugar and nutmeg to taste.

Cook and serve

  1. Tie the mixture tightly in a well-buttered cloth.

  2. Boil for 1 hour.

  3. Carefully turn it out onto a plate.

  4. Pour melted butter over it 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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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
Set the pudding and give it a firm, sliceable structure as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding its smooth, tender body.
Flour
Thickens the egg and cream mixture so it holds together when boiled.

The step that matters

Tie the mixture tightly in a well-buttered cloth. A tight cloth keeps the custard compact while it boils, so it holds its shape when turned out. Buttering the cloth prevents sticking. Loose wrapping lets the pudding spread and break apart.

“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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