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Dessert

Cheap Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made from bread, egg, milk, raisins, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Cheap Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the bread into small squares.

  2. Beat the egg.

  3. Mix the egg with the sugar and milk.

  4. Pour the mixture over the bread.

  5. Let the bread soak for a few minutes.

Assemble and steam

  1. Grease a small basin.

  2. Decorate the basin with pitted raisins.

  3. Pour the soaked mixture into the basin.

  4. Cover the basin with greased paper.

  5. Steam for one hour.

Serve

  1. Turn out onto a hot dish when done.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,111 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the body of the pudding and soaks up the custard so it holds together.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set into a firm, sliceable texture when steamed.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that soaks the bread and gives the custard a soft, moist texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the savoury-tasting bread and egg.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy bits that contrast with the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Let the bread soak for a few minutes. The bread must absorb the egg and milk mixture before steaming. Dry patches stay firm and pale, while fully soaked bread cooks evenly into a uniform, moist pudding.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

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