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Dessert

Green Gooseberry Pudding

A baked pudding made from green gooseberries, sugar, water, butter, bread crumbs, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Green Gooseberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Boil the gooseberries, sugar, and water together for 10 to 12 minutes.

  2. Mash the fruit and stir in the butter.

  3. Once nearly cold, add the bread crumbs and whisked eggs.

Bake

  1. Bake gently at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 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

Green gooseberries
Provide the tart fruit base and most of the moisture in the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart gooseberries and helps soften the fruit as it boils.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the mashed fruit.
Fine bread crumbs
Soak up liquid and give the pudding body so it holds together when baked.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the pudding structure.

The step that matters

Add the bread crumbs and eggs only once the mixture is nearly cold. Eggs added to a very hot mixture can scramble and curdle instead of blending smoothly. Letting the filling cool slightly keeps the eggs fluid so they mix in evenly and set into a uniform custard-like texture in the oven.

“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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