Skip to main content
Dessert

Windsor Pudding

A steamed pudding made with breadcrumbs, apples, raisins, suet, sugar, eggs, and milk, topped with cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Windsor Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine breadcrumbs, chopped apples, sultana raisins, minced suet, sugar, and eggs. Beat the mixture well.

  2. Add the milk.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold, decorating the top with cherries.

  2. Steam the pudding for 2½ hours.

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. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Breadcrumbs
Provide the bulk and structure that hold the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist as it steams.
Apples
Add moisture and a fruity tang that balances the sweetness.
Sultana raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its soft, tender crumb.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, egg, milk. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesDried Apple CakeDried Apple Cake51 recipes