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Dessert

Austrian Sponge Pudding

A sponge pudding made with eggs, sugar, bread crumbs, butter, and soaked in sweetened red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Austrian Sponge Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Mix the bread crumbs and sugar in a bowl.

  3. Thoroughly butter a baking dish with 2 ounces of butter.

Make and bake the pudding

  1. Beat the eggs until frothy, then gradually add the bread crumb mixture while continuing to beat.

  2. For a richer pudding, add an extra egg white at the end.

  3. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and bake until stiff.

Serve

  1. Once done, soak the pudding with sweetened and spiced red wine.

  2. Alternatively, use a thin hot sauce or fresh fruit juice instead of wine.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Bread + red winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (whiskey, malt).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten to a froth, they set the pudding into a stiff, sponge-like structure when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the beaten eggs and give the pudding its body and soft, light crumb.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture stay tender and lightly browned in the oven.
Butter
Greases the dish so the delicate pudding releases cleanly after baking.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs until frothy before adding the bread crumbs. Whipped egg foam traps air that makes the pudding light. Adding crumbs too early or under-beating deflates the foam, leaving a dense result.

“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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