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Dessert

Frozen Cabinet Pudding, No. 2

A chilled pudding made with coconut cakes, custard, milk, eggs, and gelatin, layered with currants and set in a melon mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Frozen Cabinet Pudding, No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Wet a melon mold in cold water.

  2. Sprinkle the sides and bottom of the mold with currants.

  3. Arrange layers of mixed cakes. Sprinkle currants over the layers until all are used.

Make the custard

  1. Heat 1½ pints of milk in a double boiler.

  2. Beat together 4 eggs and 2 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. When the milk is hot, stir in ⅓ package of gelatin soaked in ½ cup milk. Add the beaten eggs and sugar to the milk mixture.

  4. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

  5. Add ¼ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon vanilla or 2 tablespoons wine.

  6. Pour this mixture over the cake a few spoonfuls at a time.

  7. Set aside to cool.

Chill and serve

  1. Once cold, cover with thick white paper. Place the tin cover on top.

  2. Pack the mold in salt and ice for 4 to 6 hours.

  3. At serving time, wipe the mold free of salt and ice. Dip the mold in warm water for a moment.

  4. Remove the cover and paper. Turn out the pudding.

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. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  5. Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Eggs
Beaten eggs set the custard, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable body when cold.
Gelatin
Sets the custard so the pudding holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Milk
Forms the custard base that soaks into the cakes and sets with the eggs.
Macaroons
Dry, sturdy cake pieces that absorb custard and add chewy texture to the layers.
Sponge fingers
Absorbent sponge cake that soaks up custard and holds the layers together.

The step that matters

Cook the custard for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Eggs thicken as they heat, but overheating or leaving them unstirred can curdle the custard into lumps. Constant stirring keeps the heat even so the eggs thicken smoothly and evenly set the pudding.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Bananafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla. 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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