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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sponge cake, raisins, peaches, almonds, citron, milk, eggs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

  1. Layer some sponge cake in the bottom of a dish or mold.

  2. Cover with the fruit.

  3. Add more slices of sponge cake on top.

  4. Pour over the milk, eggs, and sugar mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for one hour.

  2. Serve with fruit sauce.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Peach + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Peach + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cake
Forms the soft body of the pudding and soaks up the custard as it steams.
Eggs
Set the milk mixture into a firm, sliceable custard as they cook.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the eggs set into a tender custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the flavor of the eggs and milk.

The step that matters

Steam for the full hour. Gentle, steady steam lets the egg proteins set the milk mixture evenly. Too little time leaves the custard runny, while harsh heat can make it curdled or rubbery.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, almond, milk, egg, sugar. 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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