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Dessert

Ginger Pudding

A steamed pudding made with cream, butter, flour, eggs, and preserved ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ginger Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream and butter until simmering.

  2. Mix in the sifted flour, stirring until combined.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Add the chopped preserved ginger and mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold and steam for 1.5 hours.

  2. Serve with 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Bind the batter so the steamed pudding sets firm enough to slice.
Flour
Provides starch that gives the pudding its body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth crumb.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Preserved ginger
Supplies the main flavour and a chewy texture through the pudding.

The step that matters

Add the eggs off the heat, one at a time. Eggs scramble if they meet very hot liquid, so removing the pan from heat and adding them gradually keeps the batter smooth and evenly emulsified.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, flour, 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.

More ginger pudding recipes

Steamed 11Preserved 6Plain 3 See all 105 →

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