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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sponge cakes soaked in wine, layered with a milk and egg custard, served with a wine‑sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and white wine match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 307 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pudding

  1. Soak the sponge cakes in sherry or white wine until thoroughly soaked.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and nutmeg, then sweeten with sugar.

  3. Place the soaked cakes in a colander without breaking them apart.

  4. Pour the egg mixture over the cakes in a buttered mold.

Steam and make the sauce

  1. Cover the mold with a cloth and steam the pudding for 1 hour.

  2. For the sauce, beat the egg yolks with powdered sugar and white wine.

  3. Simmer the mixture gently, stirring constantly, until thickened, then serve hot.

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. Sherry + white winetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sherry + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard so the pudding holds its shape when steamed.
Sponge cakes
Form the body of the pudding, soaking up the custard and wine.
Whole milk
Makes the custard liquid that sets into a soft, creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce into a smooth, rich custard as they heat.
Sherry or white wine
Flavors and moistens the sponge cakes before the custard is added.

The step that matters

Simmering the sauce. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Gentle heat and constant stirring let the proteins thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, egg, milk, sugar, white wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, egg, milk, sugar, white wine. 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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