Skip to main content
Dessert

Honey Pudding

A steamed pudding made with honey, breadcrumbs, lemon, eggs, ginger, milk, butter, and florador.

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

Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Honey Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, stir together the honey and breadcrumbs.

  2. Cook the florador in the milk for 10 minutes, then add it to the honey mixture.

  3. Mix in the grated rind of half a lemon, ginger, and the yolks of the eggs.

  4. Beat the mixture for a few minutes.

Fill and steam

  1. Butter a pudding mold and add the remaining butter to the mixture.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Fill the mold three-quarters full with the mixture and steam for 1.5 to 1.75 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with a suitable sauce or syrup.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Honey + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Honey + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,327 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps bind the pudding.
Breadcrumbs
Provide the bulk and structure that soak up the liquid and hold the pudding together.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the mixture, while whisked whites trap air for a lighter texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the breadcrumbs into the batter.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whisked whites hold air that gives the pudding its lightness. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a denser, heavier pudding.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, lemon, egg, butter, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, lemon, egg, butter, 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

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes