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Dessert

Cold Cabinet Pudding

A chilled custard pudding made with Savoy biscuits, ratafias, milk, cream, eggs, and flavored with vanilla and wine jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Cold Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Line the bottom of a charlotte mold with a layer of wine jelly.

  2. Decorate the bottom with halves or rings of glacé cherries.

  3. Line the sides of the mold with Savoy biscuits.

  4. Place the biscuits alternately back and front.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk nearly to boiling.

  2. Add the beaten eggs to the milk.

  3. Stir over low heat until thickened.

  4. Dissolve the gelatine and sugar in 1–2 tablespoons of water.

  5. Strain the mixture into the custard.

  6. Add vanilla essence to taste.

  7. Add the ratafias and trimmings of the Savoy biscuits to the mold.

  8. Mix the cream into the custard when cool.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the custard into the mold.

  2. Let it stand in a cool place until set.

  3. Turn out the pudding.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Biscuit + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together422 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the milk custard as they cook and set the pudding's body.
Savoy biscuits
Form the structural lining that holds the pudding's shape when turned out.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the cooled custard so the pudding holds its shape when unmolded.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, smoother texture to the custard.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard that the eggs thicken.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until thickened. Egg custard can curdle or turn grainy if overheated, because the egg proteins set too quickly and squeeze out water. Gentle heat thickens it smoothly.

“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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