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Dessert

Tipsy Parson Pudding

A pudding made from stale cake, jam, custard, and meringue, flavored with wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Tipsy Parson Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the base

  1. Layer thin slices of stale cake in a pudding dish and cover with jam.

  2. In a saucepan, stir cornstarch with a little cold milk until smooth, then cook for a few minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks and sugar. Add vanilla to taste.

  4. Pour the custard over the cake and jam.

Top and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites with a little sugar until stiff, then spread over the top.

  2. If desired, flavor the meringue with wine.

  3. Brown lightly in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Vanilla + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Stale cake
Forms the absorbent base that soaks up the custard and holds its shape.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor between the cake and custard.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a smooth custard that sets as it cools.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set with a rich, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened before adding the yolks. Cornstarch only thickens fully when heated to a boil, so the mixture must be cooked first. Adding yolks to a hot mixture off heat and stirring gently avoids scrambling them, keeping the custard smooth.

“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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