Skip to main content
Dessert

The Bake Well Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from eggs, sugar, butter, milk, and optional spirits, baked over candied peel and puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Melon and apricot share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The Bake Well Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs and the whites of 2 eggs with 1 ½ cups powdered sugar and 1 cup clarified butter until well mixed.

  2. Place the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  3. For a richer flavor, add ½ pint of milk or milk and cream to the egg mixture just before it boils, along with ratafia or brandy if desired.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a dish with puff pastry and add a layer of candied peel about 1 inch thick.

  2. Pour the thickened mixture over the candied peel.

  3. You can also add preserved fruits and top with apricot or raspberry jam for decoration.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300 °F (150 °C) until set.

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. Melon + apricottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Brandy + apricottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Milk + melontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and add richness and a set structure when heated.
Egg whites
Add structure and help the filling set into a light, tender custard when baked.
Clarified butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and flavor.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and dissolves smoothly into the eggs and butter.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the custard, making it smoother and more tender.

The step that matters

Stirring over low heat until it thickens. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so high heat or lack of stirring can scramble the eggs and make the custard grainy. Constant stirring over low heat keeps it smooth and thickened.

Swap the melon

The recipe marks melon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, brandy, apricot):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Melonthe original

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

You might also like

Brandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesApricot Ice CreamApricot Ice Cream26 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipesBrandy PuddingBrandy Pudding13 recipes