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Dessert

Cambridge Pudding

A baked pudding made with flour, candied peel, sultanas, lard or butter, sugar, egg, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cambridge Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate 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. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Rub in the lard or butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

  4. Shred the candied peel and clean the sultanas.

  5. Add the candied peel, sultanas, and sugar to the flour mixture.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the egg and milk, and beat well until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased flat tin or pie dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden.

  2. Cut into squares and serve, or turn out whole if baked in a mould.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the pudding as the main dry ingredient.
Lard or butter
Rubbed into the flour to tenderise the crumb and add richness.
Egg
Binds the mixture and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and become light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and gives the batter moisture and a soft texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust take on golden browning.

The step that matters

Rubbing in the lard or butter. The fat must be rubbed evenly into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Fat coats the flour particles and limits gluten formation, so the pudding stays tender rather than tough. Uneven or overworked fat gives a dense, uneven texture.

“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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