Skip to main content
Dessert

Tansey Pudding

A pudding made with Jordan almonds, rose syrup, French roll crumbs, nutmeg, brandy, tansy juice, butter, citron slices, cream or milk, lemon juice, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Tansey Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and pound the Jordan almonds.

Make the pudding

  1. In a stewpan, combine the almonds, rose syrup, French roll crumbs, nutmeg, brandy, tansy juice, butter, and citron slices.

  2. Pour the boiling cream or milk over the mixture, sweeten to taste, and let it cool.

  3. Add the lemon juice and beaten eggs, mixing well.

  4. You can either boil or bake the pudding.

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 + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give the pudding its structure as they cook.
French roll
Crumbs soak up the liquids and thicken the mixture into a soft body.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Cream or milk
Provides the liquid and moisture that gives the pudding its custard texture.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs after the cream cools. Eggs scrambled by very hot liquid turn grainy instead of smooth. Letting the mixture cool before adding the beaten eggs and lemon juice helps them blend in and set evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, rose, syrup, brandy, butter, cream, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, rose, syrup, brandy, butter, cream, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipes