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Dessert

Viennoise Pudding

A bread pudding made with lemon zest, almonds, raisins, Madeira wine, and burnt custard, steamed and served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Viennoise Pudding

Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Viennoise Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine bread, lemon zest, sweet almonds, bitter almonds, and sultana raisins in a large bowl.

  2. Pour the Madeira wine over the mixture.

  3. Add enough burnt custard to fill a mould. Mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Decorate with citron.

  2. Fill the mould with the mixture.

  3. Steam for 1.5 hours.

  4. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,111 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Bread + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together858 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the bulk of the pudding and soaks up the wine and custard to hold its shape.
Sultana raisins
Add sweetness and moist, chewy pockets throughout the pudding.
Madeira wine
Adds aroma and depth of flavour while helping the bread soften and absorb liquid.
Burnt custard
Supplies moisture and a caramelised, toasty flavour that binds the mixture together.
Sweet almonds
Add richness, fat and a nutty texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Fill the mould with the mixture. The mixture should be packed evenly without air gaps. Steaming sets the bread and custard into a firm, sliceable pudding, so loose packing can make it crumble or hold uneven shape.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, almond, raisin, madeira wine):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, almond, raisin, madeira wine. 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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