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Dessert

Cottage Pudding

A baked dessert made from milk, sugar, flour, egg, butter, baking powder, vanilla, topped with jam and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Cottage Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix melted butter and sugar.

  3. Add the beaten egg, milk, flour, and vanilla; mix well.

  4. Pour the batter into gem tins.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until done.

  2. Once baked, scoop out the center of each pudding.

  3. Fill the center with strawberry jam.

  4. Serve with whipped cream sweetened with sugar and vanilla.

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter as its proteins set during baking.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the puddings rise.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown lightly in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.

The step that matters

Scoop out the center after baking. The centers must be cool enough to handle but still warm enough to hold their shape while you hollow them. Removing the crumb too early can crumble the pudding, and leaving the center in place leaves no room for the jam filling.

Swap the strawberry jam

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Strawberry jamthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, egg, butter, vanilla, cream. 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.

More cottage pudding recipes

Sauce 10Steamed 6Apple 5Strawberry 3 See all 326 →

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