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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding, Hot

A steamed pudding made with sponge cake, ratafias, custard, fruit, milk, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding, Hot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare a basin and fill it with a mixture of cake, ratafias, and fruit, leaving space for custard.

  2. Make the custard by combining milk, eggs, and cream, then pour it over the solid ingredients in the basin.

  3. If desired, let the mixture stand for a while before cooking to improve lightness.

Steam

  1. Steam the pudding for about 1.5 hours, ensuring it cooks slowly for the best texture.

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. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Eggs
Set the custard and give the pudding its structure as they cook.
Sponge cake
Forms the soft body of the pudding that absorbs the custard.
Ratafias
Add almond aroma and a crisp, chewy texture to the pudding.
Milk
Provides the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding slowly. Gentle steaming lets the egg custard set evenly, giving a smooth, tender texture. High heat can make the eggs curdle and turn the pudding grainy or rubbery.

“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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