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Dessert

Biscuit-Puddings

A pudding made by soaking grated Naples biscuits in boiling milk or cream, then adding eggs, spices, and brandy, and boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 368 recipes. Both carry maltol, which smells caramel, sweet. The science ↓

Biscuit-Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pour boiling milk or cream over grated biscuits and cover tightly.

  2. Once cold, add egg yolks, egg whites, nutmeg, brandy, flour, and sugar.

  3. Beat the mixture well.

Cook and serve

  1. Butter a basin.

  2. Pour the mixture into the basin.

  3. Boil for 1 hour.

  4. Serve with wine 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.

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. Biscuit + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Biscuit + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Naples biscuits
Provide the bulk and body of the pudding as they soak up the hot milk or cream.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set into a tender, rich texture.
Egg whites
Add airy lightness and help the pudding rise and hold its structure when cooked.
Milk or cream
Softens the biscuits and supplies moisture for a creamy, soft-set texture.
Flour
Adds a little structure so the pudding holds together when cooked.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into the basin. Butter the basin well before filling so the pudding releases cleanly. Egg-based puddings set firmly during boiling, so an unbuttered basin can make the pudding stick and break when turned out.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, milk, egg, brandy, flour, sugar, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, milk, egg, brandy, flour, sugar, butter. 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.

More biscuit pudding recipes

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