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Dessert

Macaroni Pudding

A baked dessert of macaroni, raisins, allspice, sugar, suet crust, and custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,475 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Macaroni Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the macaroni in cold water until soft.

  2. Line a pie dish with the suet crust, decorating the edge.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the soaked macaroni, sultana raisins, allspice, and moist sugar.

  2. Pour the custard over the mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Allspice + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Soaked to softness, it forms the bulk and body of the filling.
Sultana raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture as they plump in the baked filling.
Suet crust
Its fat makes a rich, tender crust that holds the filling in the dish.
Custard
Its egg or starch base sets with heat, binding the pudding into a soft, creamy mass.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Underbaked custard stays runny and won't hold its shape when cut. Overbaking can make the custard grainy or cause it to weep liquid, so check for a firm centre rather than relying on time alone.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin. 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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