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Transparent Puddings

A steamed pudding made with butter, sugar, egg yolks, and apricot jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and apricot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,458 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Transparent Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until thick and smooth.

  2. Add each egg yolk separately, beating well after each addition.

Fill and steam

  1. Place a layer of the mixture in the bottom of 6 well-buttered dario moulds.

  2. Add 2 teaspoons of apricot jam to each mould and cover with the remaining mixture.

  3. Steam for 20 to 25 minutes.

Cool and serve

  1. Let them cool slightly before turning them out to prevent breaking.

  2. Serve with custard sauce.

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 + apricottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,458 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + apricottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture so it sets as it steams.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, rich texture and holds air when creamed with sugar.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps the creamed butter become light and smooth.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour, and moistens the layer it sits in.

The step that matters

Add each egg yolk separately, beating well after each addition. Adding yolks gradually lets each one blend fully into the butter and sugar. Adding them all at once can cause the mixture to split, which leaves a coarser, less smooth texture.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter. 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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