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Dessert

Feather Pudding

A baked wheat meal pudding topped with apricot sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Feather Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Whisk together wheat meal, salt, sugar, and butter until well combined.

  2. Add the milk and beaten eggs.

  3. Beat the mixture steadily for 15 minutes.

  4. Pour the batter into a well-greased tin, filling it about three-quarters full.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 35 minutes.

  2. Heat the apricot jam with the water until very hot.

  3. Strain the sauce through a heated gravy strainer over and around the pudding before serving.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

  5. Wheat + apricottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Allinson fine wheat meal
Forms the structure of the pudding as the batter sets.
Apricot jam
Provides sweetness and fruity flavour in the sauce.

The step that matters

Beating the batter for 15 minutes. Steady beating incorporates air and develops the batter's structure, which helps the pudding rise and become light. Under-beating can leave it dense.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, sugar, butter, milk, egg. 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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