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Dessert

Marrow Pudding

A baked pudding made from beef marrow, cakes, sponge, bread crumbs, candied peel, spices, sugar, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Marrow Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop the beef marrow finely.

  2. Mix with ratafia cakes, sponge cake, bread crumbs, candied peel, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and sugar.

  3. Add enough eggs to achieve a thick batter consistency.

Bake

  1. Line a buttered earthenware pudding mold with buttered paper.

  2. Fill the mold, leaving room for the pudding to rise.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about an hour.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Beef marrow
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding its tender, rich body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when baked, giving the pudding structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown during baking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
Sponge cake
Adds lightness and soft crumb to the pudding's texture.

The step that matters

Add enough eggs to achieve a thick batter consistency. Eggs set as they heat, so the batter must be thick enough to hold its shape. Too little egg leaves the pudding loose and crumbly, while the right amount gives a firm, sliceable set.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, egg):

  1. Allspicefits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, egg. 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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