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Dessert

The Good Daughter’s Mincemeat Pudding

A layered bread pudding made with French roll, mincemeat, custard, and baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The Good Daughter’s Mincemeat Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Spread thin slices of French roll with butter and layer them in a deep tart dish.

  3. Cover the first layer with a thick layer of mincemeat.

  4. Add a second layer of buttered roll slices and top with more mincemeat.

Make the custard and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, milk, salt, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Pour the custard gently over the layered mincemeat and bread.

  3. Let the pudding soak for 1 hour.

  4. Bake gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until firm in the center.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 custard so the pudding turns firm and sliceable when baked.
Milk
Forms the liquid custard that soaks into the bread and gives a soft, moist texture.
French roll
Absorbs the custard and forms the bready structure that holds the layers together.
Mincemeat
Adds concentrated sweetness and aroma that flavours each layer of the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and supports gentle browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Bake gently for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until firm in the center. Eggs set as they heat; baking too hot can curdle the custard and make it grainy or watery. Gentle heat lets the center firm evenly without overcooking the edges.

“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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