Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mold
Cut the sponge cakes in half and grease a flat-bottomed mold.
Decorate the mold with angelica and dried cherries.
Line the mold with sponge cakes, placing the white side against the mold.
Make the custard
Make the custard by heating 2 cups of milk with 1 ounce of sugar, the yolks of 4 eggs, the whites of 2 eggs, a little vanilla, and a little brandy to taste.
When the custard is nearly cold, pour it into the mold filled with pieces of cake.
Steam and serve
Cover the mold with writing paper and place it in a saucepan half full of boiling water.
Steam for 45 minutes to 1 hour, ensuring the water does not touch the pudding.
Serve cold with whipped cream.
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.
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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Vanilla + angelicatop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together170 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,738 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Vanilla and sugar 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
- Yolks and whites set the custard and give the pudding its structure as it steams.
- Sponge cakes
- Form the body of the pudding, soaking up custard to become soft and tender.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and a creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the eggs and milk.
- Ratafias
- Add almond-like flavour and a crisp, biscuity note to the pudding.
The step that matters
Steam for 45 minutes to 1 hour, ensuring the water does not touch the pudding.. Gentle steaming cooks the egg custard evenly; if water seeps into the mold or the water boils too hard, the custard can turn watery or pocked with holes.
Swap the angelica
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, vanilla, sugar, milk, brandy):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Angelicathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, vanilla, sugar, milk, 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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