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Dessert

Biscuit Pudding

A sweet pudding made by soaking grated biscuits in boiling milk, flavored with lemon peel, nutmeg, coriander, and optional brandy, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Biscuit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the biscuits and place them in a bowl.

  2. Pour 1 pint of boiling milk over the grated biscuits.

  3. Add lemon peel, nutmeg, and coriander seeds to the milk, then strain out the solids.

Bake

  1. Mix in the egg yolks and a little brandy if desired.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.

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. Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + biscuittop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Nutmeg + coriandertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together397 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Lemon + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together697 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Grated biscuits
Form the body of the pudding and absorb the flavoured milk.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and set it into a custard-like texture when baked.
Milk
Softens the biscuits and provides the liquid that carries the flavours.

The step that matters

Baking until set. Egg yolks set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding loose and overbaking can make it curdle and turn grainy. Watch for a firm centre rather than relying on time alone.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, lemon, nutmeg, brandy, biscuit):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, lemon, nutmeg, brandy, biscuit. 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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