Skip to main content
Dessert

Cabinet Pudding, Plain

A steamed bread pudding made with milk, eggs, sugar, raisins, and flavored with almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the raisins in half and remove the stones.

  2. Cut the crusts off the bread and divide each slice into 1‑inch wide strips, tapering one end.

  3. Grease a basin well, decorate the bottom with raisins, and line it with the bread strips.

Make and steam

  1. Beat the eggs, then add the sugar, milk, and flavoring, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  2. Cut the bread trimmings into dice and place them in the prepared basin.

  3. Pour the custard mixture over the bread, cover with greased paper, and steam gently for about 1 hour.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides 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 so it holds its shape when steamed.
Milk
Forms the liquid custard that soaks into the bread and softens it.
Bread
Forms the structure of the pudding, soaking up custard as it sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the savoury-tasting egg custard.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture in the bottom layer of the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam gently. Eggs set into a smooth custard at moderate heat; a hard boil or rapid steam can cause the custard to curdle and turn pitted or rubbery.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits less well
  4. Cocoafits less well

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

More cabinet pudding recipes

Cold 16Sauce 10Royal Iced 3 See all 177 →

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes