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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with fruit, sponge cake, custard, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and layer

  1. Butter the inside of a pudding mold.

  2. Layer the bottom with some chopped fruit.

  3. Add a layer of sponge cake slices.

  4. Sprinkle spices over the cake.

  5. Repeat layering with fruit and cake until nearly full.

Make the custard

  1. Make a custard by mixing milk, eggs, salt, and melted butter.

  2. Pour the custard over the cake without cooking it.

  3. Let it soak for 1 hour.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1.5 hours.

  2. Serve with wine sauce or custard.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the pudding holds its shape when steamed.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the pudding moist.
Sponge cake
Soaks up the custard to form the soft, pudding-like body.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture between the cake layers.
Currants
Add sweetness and concentrated fruity flavor between the cake layers.

The step that matters

Steaming the custard gently. Eggs set as they warm, so heat that is too high or too long can curdle the custard and leave it watery or rubbery. Steady, moderate steam sets it evenly throughout.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, milk, egg, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, milk, egg, butter. 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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