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Dessert

College Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sponge cake, biscuits, milk, cream, cherries, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 388 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

College Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse and soak

  1. Simmer the almonds in the milk and cream for 10 minutes.

  2. Pour the mixture over the crushed biscuits and sponge cake, and soak for 20 minutes.

  3. Beat the soaked mixture well with a fork.

Mix and fill

  1. Add the sugar, egg yolks, and brandy, and mix thoroughly.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Butter a mold and decorate the bottom with the chopped cherries.

  4. Pour the mixture into the mold and steam for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve with German 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. Biscuit + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Biscuit + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whipped whites add lightness and help it set.
Milk
Provides the liquid that softens the crumbs and gives the pudding its moist, tender body.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, softer texture.
Sponge cake
Soaks up the liquid and forms the soft, absorbent base of the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps tenderize the custard as it sets.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, boozy flavor to the pudding.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air that gives lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, so the pudding turns out dense. Fold gently with a wide motion to keep the air.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, milk, sugar, cream, egg, brandy):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, milk, sugar, cream, egg, 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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