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Dessert

Custard Pudding

A baked or boiled custard made with eggs, milk, cream, flour, sugar, spices, and brandy, topped with sugar, nutmeg, and jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Custard Pudding

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Custard Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Prepare a large pot of boiling water.

  3. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.

  4. Mix the yolks with the milk, cream, and flour to create a batter.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites, sugar, cinnamon or nutmeg, and brandy just before baking.

  6. Butter a basin or mold that will hold the mixture.

Cook

  1. If boiling, place the basin in the boiling water.

  2. Keep the basin moving for several minutes to prevent settling.

  3. If boiling, boil for 30 minutes.

  4. If baking, bake for 20 minutes until set.

Serve

  1. Once done, turn out the pudding.

  2. Sprinkle with fine sugar and nutmeg.

  3. Serve with melted butter or wine sauce.

  4. Garnish with raspberry jam or red currant jelly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whipped whites set the custard and give it an airy, tender structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the eggs set into a custard.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, smoother texture and moisture.
Flour
Helps thicken the batter so it holds its shape while setting.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to a tender, soft crumb.

The step that matters

Keep the basin moving while the mixture sets. Stirring or moving the basin for several minutes keeps the heavier mixture from settling to the bottom, so the pudding cooks evenly and stays uniform throughout.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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

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