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Dessert

Woodford Pudding

A baked pudding made with eggs, butter, sugar, flour, baking soda, sour milk, jam, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Woodford Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the eggs, butter, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add to the mixture.

  3. Gradually add the flour, mixing until smooth.

  4. Fold in the jam, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake slowly until set.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the batter brown and soften.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the pudding.
Flour
Forms the main structure that sets the pudding.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tang and moisture.
Jam
Adds fruit sweetness, moisture and flavour throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake slowly until set. A low oven temperature cooks the batter gently so the eggs set evenly without the outside over-browning or the centre curdling. Baking soda gas forms early, so the batter should go into the oven promptly after mixing.

“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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