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Dessert

Imperial Pudding

A steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, sugar, margarine, raisins, candied peel, egg, lemon juice, and golden syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Imperial Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Slightly warm the margarine, sugar, and syrup together and beat until creamy.

  2. Combine the creamed mixture with the dry ingredients.

  3. Add the egg and lemon juice, and mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased basin.

  2. Steam or boil for 1.5 hours.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body of the pudding, absorbing the syrup and butter fats.
Lyle's golden syrup
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a caramel aroma as the pudding steams.
Margarine
Adds fat that softens the crumbs and gives a tender, rich texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps it set as it cooks.
Chopped raisins
Add concentrated sweetness, chew, and fruity flavour.

The step that matters

Steam or boil for 1.5 hours. Steaming gently and keeping the water topped up gives even heat, so the egg sets the pudding through without drying the crumbs or scorching the base.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, raisin, egg, syrup. 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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