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Dessert

A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

A custard-like dessert made with sponge biscuits, ratifias, dried cherries, cream, eggs, brandy, and flavored with vanilla or lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold thickly.

  2. Decorate the mold with dried cherries or stoned muscatel raisins.

Make the custard

  1. Layer in ¼ lb of sliced sponge biscuits.

  2. Layer an equal weight of ratifias.

  3. Sweeten with 3 oz of sugar.

  4. Flavor with vanilla or lemon rind and bruised almonds.

  5. Mix in ¾ pint of thin cream or a cream and milk mixture.

  6. Strain the mixture.

  7. Combine the strained mixture with the well-beaten yolks of 6 eggs and the whites of 2.

  8. Once nearly cold, gradually add ⅓ cup of brandy.

  9. Pour the mixture gently into the mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam or boil softly for 1 hour.

  2. Serve with a well-made 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Biscuit + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together422 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

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

  5. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Sponge biscuits
Soak up the custard and form the body of the pudding as it sets.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and give it a rich, smooth set when gently cooked.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the custard set with a softer texture.
Thin cream
Provides richness and moisture so the custard sets soft and creamy.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the eggs and cream.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the custard.

The step that matters

Steam or boil softly for 1 hour. Egg custards turn grainy and watery if overheated. Gentle, steady heat lets the eggs set evenly into a smooth, tender pudding.

“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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