Why it works: Sugar and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Careamel Diplomatic Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare plain jelly as directed.
Fill a mold with the jelly.
Make the custard
Make custard and flavor it with burnt sugar and French brandy.
Pour the custard into the mold to fill it up.
Serve
Once set, turn out the pudding onto a serving plate.
Cover the pudding with caramel sugar.
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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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Custard
- Forms the creamy body of the pudding, setting firm when cooled.
- Plain jelly
- Provides a firm, wobbly base that holds the mold's shape.
- Burnt sugar
- Adds a deep, caramel-like bitter sweetness and colour to the custard.
- French brandy
- Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the custard.
- Caramel sugar
- Forms a glossy, sweet coating over the finished pudding.
The step that matters
Pour the custard into the mold to fill it up. Pouring the custard slowly and filling the mold completely helps avoid air pockets and gaps, so the pudding sets evenly and unmoulds cleanly.
“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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