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Dessert

Baked Hasty Pudding

A baked pudding made with milk, flour, butter, sugar, lemon rind, eggs, and optional bitter almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Hasty Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 ounces of flour with enough milk to create a thin batter.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk and a pinch of salt to a boil.

  2. Stir the flour mixture into the boiling milk and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then mix in the butter, sugar, lemon rind, eggs, and brandy or orange‑flower water, and the pounded bitter almonds if using.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Starch thickens the milk into a smooth, pourable custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and the eggs set.
Eggs
Proteins set during baking, giving the pudding its firm body.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a softer texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and softens the texture of the set custard.
Lemon rind
Oils in the zest add a bright citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour mixture in the milk. Stir the flour mixture into the boiling milk and keep stirring over low heat, since the starch can clump and scorch if left alone. Let the mixture cool slightly before adding the eggs, because very hot custard can scramble them.

“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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