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Dessert

Rolled Pudding

A boiled pastry roll filled with jam, brown sugar, lemon rind, and optional currants.

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

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rolled Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the pudding

  1. Roll out a thin layer of light pastry or good shortcrust pastry.

  2. Spread fruit jam evenly over the pastry, leaving an inch from the edge.

  3. Sprinkle a deep layer of brown sugar on top.

  4. Add grated lemon rind and juice for flavor.

  5. Roll the pastry tightly, sealing the edges well.

  6. Tie the pudding securely in a floured cloth.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

  2. Serve carefully to avoid breaking, cutting a small piece from the top.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the pastry structure that holds the rolled filling together while it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pastry tender and rich as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the pastry tender and rich as it cooks.
Fruit jam
Adds sweetness and moisture that soaks into the pastry as it boils.
Lemon rind and juice
Adds acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness of the jam and sugar.

The step that matters

Roll the pastry tightly, sealing the edges well.. Gaps or weak seams let the jam and sugar leak out during boiling, leaving a dry pudding and a messy result.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, lemon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, lemon. 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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