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Dessert

Sago Pudding

A sweet pudding made from sago, milk, cinnamon, lemon peel, sugar, butter, brandy, eggs, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sago Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and pick 4 ounces of sago clean.

  2. Prepare a border of thin puff pastry around a baking dish.

Make the custard

  1. Mix sago with 1½ pints of milk in a pot.

  2. Tie the cinnamon and lemon peel in a clean muslin rag and add to the pot.

  3. Simmer gently, stirring frequently, until thickened.

  4. Remove the spice bag from the pot once thickened.

  5. Stir in 4 ounces of loaf sugar, 2 ounces of butter, and 1 tablespoon of brandy.

  6. Let the mixture cool slightly, then add 4 beaten eggs and a pinch of salt, strained through a sieve.

  7. Mix well and pour into the baking dish.

Bake

  1. Grate nutmeg over the top and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until set, ensuring it does not boil.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Sago
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the pudding into a soft, sliceable custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the sago swells in and the eggs set into.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the set texture of the pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the custard.

The step that matters

Keep the custard below a boil before baking. Eggs curdle and turn grainy if the mixture boils, so it should be kept gentle and removed from heat once thickened, then baked until just set.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cinnamon, sugar, butter, brandy, egg, nutmeg. 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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