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Dessert

Spice Pudding

A baked pudding made with bread crumbs, apples, raisins, currants, spices, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spice 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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Combine bread crumbs and sweet milk in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture sit on the back of the stove until very soft.

  3. Add chopped apples, sugar, raisins, currants, citron (if using), whisky (if using), cinnamon, cloves, and beaten egg yolks to the mixture.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with sauce or whipped cream.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Apple + whiskytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together96 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

Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the batter, while the separately beaten whites lighten it and help it set.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they form the soft body of the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning in the baking dish.
Sweet milk
Moistens the bread crumbs and gives the pudding its custard-like texture.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness and spices.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air that lifts the batter; folding gently keeps that air in, so the pudding stays light rather than deflating into a dense mass.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, apple, sugar, raisin, whisky, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, apple, sugar, raisin, whisky, cinnamon, clove. 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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