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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed custard made with layers of stale cake and jam, topped with a sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold and fill it with alternate layers of crumbled cake and jam.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.

  3. Pour the custard mixture over the layered cake and jam.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 30 minutes and serve with a sweet sauce.

Make the sweet sauce

  1. For the sweet sauce, cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  2. Add vanilla extract and gradually mix in the milk.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and stir until creamy.

Make the caramel sauce

  1. For caramel sauce, combine sugar, flour, butter, and salt in a pan.

  2. Brown the mixture well but do not burn it.

  3. Add boiling water and vanilla extract to the pan.

  4. If desired, thicken with a little cornstarch instead of flour.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Vanilla and sugar 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 bulk of the pudding and soaks up the custard as it steams.
Eggs
Set the custard so the pudding holds its shape when steamed.
Milk
Provides the liquid that turns the eggs into a soft custard.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor between the cake layers.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauces.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly for a fine texture.

The step that matters

Brown the caramel mixture well but do not burn it. Sugar darkens and builds caramel flavor as it heats, but past that point it turns bitter and acrid. Watch the color closely and stop heating at a rich amber.

“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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