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Dessert

A Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

A custard pudding made with sponge biscuits, ratifias, cherries, sugar, vanilla or lemon rind, almonds, cream, eggs, brandy, baked in a 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 Very Fine Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

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

  2. Layer sponge biscuits and ratifias in the mold.

Make the custard

  1. Sweeten with sugar and add vanilla or lemon rind and bruised almonds.

  2. Heat the cream and pour it over the beaten egg yolks and egg whites.

  3. Let the mixture cool slightly, then gradually stir in the brandy.

Steam and serve

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

  2. Serve with 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. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

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 with fat, helping it set when steamed.
Egg whites
Add airy structure and help the pudding set lightly.
Sponge biscuits
Soak up the custard and form the body of the pudding.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the custard a smooth, soft texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream and yolks.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring in the brandy after cooling. Adding alcohol to a hot custard can affect its flavour and aroma, and eggs can scramble if the mixture is too hot. Letting it cool slightly before gradually stirring in the brandy keeps the custard smooth and lets it set evenly when steamed.

“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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