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Dessert

Cracker Pudding

A sweet pudding made with crackers, eggs, sugar, milk, raisins, almonds, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cracker Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the well-beaten egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Stir in the almonds and raisins.

  4. Dissolve the crackers in the milk and add to the mixture.

  5. Just before cooking, fold in the well-beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Cook in a greased dish for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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

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

  3. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Milk + raisintop 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whites folded in last add lightness and help it set.
Crackers
Dissolved in milk, they absorb liquid and thicken the mixture, giving it body.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a lighter texture.
Sweet milk
Supplies the moisture that softens the crackers and hydrates the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air that gives lift. Stirring them in vigorously or letting the batter stand deflates that foam, so fold gently and bake right after adding them.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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