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Dessert

Baked Puddings

A layered baked pudding of rhubarb, sliced penny roll, sugar and fine bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble

  1. Cut the rhubarb into short lengths and layer them in a deep dish with a spoonful or two of sugar.

  2. Cover the rhubarb with a layer of sliced penny roll.

  3. Add another layer of rhubarb and sugar, followed by another layer of bread.

  4. Top with a deep layer of fine bread crumbs mixed with about 2 teaspoons of sugar.

  5. Drizzle a little clarified butter over the top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Rhubarb + breadtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Rhubarb + buttertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart fruit filling that softens and cooks down under the bread layers.
Penny roll
Soaks up juices from the rhubarb, giving the pudding its soft, custard-like body.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft layers below.
Clarified butter
Adds fat that helps the topping brown and crisp in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart rhubarb and helps the top layer caramelise and brown.

The step that matters

Bake in a brisk oven. A hot oven sets the bread and crumbs and browns the top before the rhubarb turns watery. A low oven leaves the pudding soggy and pale.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, bread. 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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