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Dessert

A Vert Fine Cabinet Pudding

A custard pudding made with dried cherries, biscuits, sugar, vanilla, cream, eggs, and brandy, steamed in a buttered mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Vert Fine Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold thickly and decorate it with dried cherries or raisins.

  2. Layer in the sponge biscuits and ratifias.

  3. Add the sugar and flavor with vanilla or lemon rind and bruised almonds.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the cream and heat it.

  2. Strain the heated cream into the beaten egg yolks and egg whites.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

  4. Gradually stir in the brandy.

  5. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Steam or boil gently for 1 hour.

  2. Serve with a well-made wine 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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set, giving it a rich, sliceable body.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the custard set with a softer, airier texture.
Cream
Provides fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, tender texture.
Sponge biscuits
Soak up the custard and form the soft, cake-like body of the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps balance the richness of the eggs and cream.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor that complements the cherries and vanilla.

The step that matters

Steam or boil gently for 1 hour. Egg custard sets through gentle heat; a hard boil or fierce steam can curdle the eggs and leave the pudding pitted or rubbery.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Apricotfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, sugar, vanilla, cream, egg, brandy, 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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