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Dessert

Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, biscuits, maccaroons, ratifias, candied citron, eggs, milk, cream, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Prepare a quart mold or basin.

  2. Layer the raisins, sponge biscuits, maccaroons, ratifias, and candied citron in the mold.

Make the custard

  1. Whisk the egg yolks and egg whites together until thoroughly mixed.

  2. Combine the whisked eggs with the new milk.

  3. Strain the mixture into the sweet cream.

  4. Add the pounded sugar and mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the mold, filling it exactly.

  2. Steam or gently boil the pudding for 1 hour.

  3. Let it stand for a few minutes before serving to prevent breaking.

  4. Serve with good wine or brandy 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + biscuittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Biscuit + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks and egg whites
Set the custard, giving the pudding its structure as it steams.
Sponge biscuits
Soak up the custard, giving the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
New milk
Adds liquid and richness to the custard, keeping the pudding moist.
Sweet cream
Adds fat, making the custard richer and smoother.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps it brown lightly.
Raisins or dried cherries
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Let it stand before serving. Steamed custard is still soft and delicate when it leaves the heat. Resting it for a few minutes lets the egg proteins firm up slightly, so the pudding holds its shape and does not break when turned out.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, egg, milk, cream, sugar. 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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