Name: A Very Pine Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients: ½ cup dried cherries; 1 lb sponge biscuits, sliced; 4 oz ratifias; ¾ pint thin cream or a mix of cream and new milk; 3 oz sugar; ½ vanilla pod or the thin rind of ½ lemon and 6 bruised bitter almonds; 6 egg yolks; 2 egg whites; ⅓ cup good brandy

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

A Very Pine Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

Butter a mold thickly and decorate it with dried cherries or stoned muscatel raisins.
Layer in the sponge biscuit slices and ratifias.

Make the custard

Sweeten with sugar and add vanilla or lemon rind and bruised almonds.
Heat the cream and pour it over the beaten egg yolks and egg whites.
Let the mixture cool slightly, then gradually stir in the brandy.

Steam and serve

Pour the mixture into the mold and steam or gently boil for 1 hour.
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.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Biscuit + vanillatop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together422 recipes

Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 and enrich it, helping it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Egg whites: Add lightness and help the custard set with a softer, airier texture.
Sponge biscuits: Soak up the custard and form the body of the pudding.
Cream: Adds richness and moisture, giving the custard a smooth, tender texture.
Brandy: Adds aroma and flavour while contributing a little moisture to the custard.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the richness of the eggs and cream.

The step that matters

Stir the brandy in after the mixture cools slightly. Adding alcohol to a very hot custard can cause it to lose its aroma and can make the eggs curdle or thin. Letting it cool slightly first keeps the custard smooth and the brandy's flavour intact.

“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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A Very Pine Cabinet Pudding