Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the basin
Stone the raisins and cut them in halves.
Butter the inside of a pint pudding basin or mold and cover it with the raisins, skins facing the basin.
Layer and make the custard
Fill the basin with alternating layers of ratafias and pieces of sponge cake.
Make a custard by blending 1 tablespoon of Swiss milk with ½ pint of cold water and the packet of pudding powder; stir until it boils and thickens.
Pour the custard over the cakes gradually.
If desired, add 1 tablespoon of brandy for extra flavor.
Steam
Cut a piece of writing paper slightly larger than the pudding, butter it, and lay it on top of the pudding.
Steam the pudding for one hour in a potato steamer or by placing the basin in a saucepan with boiling water halfway up the sides.
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.
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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together782 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sponge cakes
- Forms the bulk of the pudding and soaks up the custard to set into a soft, moist texture.
- Ratafias
- Add crisp almond-like crumbs and concentrated sweet, nutty flavor between the cake layers.
- Muscatel raisins
- Add chewy sweetness and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.
- Vanilla pudding powder
- Thickens the liquid into a custard that sets the cakes and binds the pudding together.
The step that matters
Pour the custard over the cakes gradually. Pouring slowly lets the sponge and ratafias absorb the custard evenly. Adding it all at once can leave dry pockets and pooled liquid, so the pudding sets unevenly.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, milk, butter, brandy):
- Figfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Peachfits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, milk, butter, brandy. 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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