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Dessert

Beehive Pudding

A steamed pudding made with macaroni, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, flour, cream, sherry, and marmalade.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Beehive Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar over low heat.

  2. Add the flour and milk, stirring until it boils.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before stirring in the cream and eggs.

  4. Cook the macaroni in a little milk until tender, then cut into small pieces.

  5. Mix the macaroni and bread crumbs into the batter.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and steam for about 1.5 hours.

  2. Serve with a sweet sauce or compote.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard structure and give the pudding its body as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a tender, moist crumb.
Flour
Thickens the batter so it holds its shape during steaming.
Milk
Provides moisture and helps form the thickened base with the flour.
Bread crumbs
Adds bulk and soaks up liquid, giving the pudding a lighter texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the butter and eggs.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool slightly before adding the cream and eggs. If the base is too hot, the eggs can curdle or scramble instead of blending smoothly, which leaves a grainy texture in the finished pudding.

“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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