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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, finger sponges, ratifias, sponge cake, cherries, and angelica.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Grease a 1‑pint mold with butter.

  2. Decorate the bottom with cherries and angelica in a pattern.

  3. Split the finger sponges and arrange them around the mold, alternating brown and light sides.

  4. Fill the mold three‑quarters full with scraps of finger sponges, sponge cake, and crumbled ratifias.

Make the custard and steam

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together.

  2. Add the milk and vanilla, mixing thoroughly.

  3. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  4. Let it stand for 10 minutes, cover with buttered paper, and steam gently for 45 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and moistens the sponge pieces.
Finger sponges
Form the structure of the pudding, soaking up custard to hold its shape.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam gently for 45 minutes. Gentle steaming lets the egg custard set evenly. High heat or boiling water can make the eggs curdle and leave the pudding pitted or rubbery.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar, vanilla, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, vanilla, 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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