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Dessert

Adelaide Pudding

A steamed pudding made with eggs, suet, apples, currants, bread crumbs, sugar, lemon rind, salt, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Adelaide Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a basin, mix the shredded suet with the chopped apples, bread crumbs, sugar, currants, salt, and lemon rind.

  2. Beat the eggs well and stir them into the dry ingredients.

  3. Add the brandy and mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased mold and steam for three hours.

  2. Serve with brandy sauce or custard.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  3. Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help give the pudding its set structure.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Bread crumbs
Provide body and absorb liquid to give the pudding its soft crumb.
Apples
Add moisture and a fresh, tart flavour that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its moist texture.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a greased mold and steam for three hours.. The mold must be greased so the pudding releases cleanly, and steaming gently at a steady heat sets the eggs and crumbs into a moist, tender pudding without drying it out.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, currant, apple, bread, sugar, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, currant, apple, bread, sugar, brandy. 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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