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Dessert

Bakewell Pudding

A baked dessert made with preserves, egg yolks, sugar, clarified butter, and candied citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Bakewell Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a shallow tart dish with a 1‑inch deep layer of mixed preserves.

  3. Intermix the preserves with 2 to 3 ounces of candied citron or orange rind.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, beat the yolks of 10 eggs and gradually add ½ pound of sifted sugar until well mixed.

  2. Slowly pour in ½ pound of clarified butter and add your choice of flavoring.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into the tart dish until it is two‑thirds full.

  2. Bake for nearly 1 hour.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the filling and give it a rich, set custard texture.
Sifted sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the yolks and butter blend into a smooth mixture.
Clarified butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Mixed preserves
Form the fruity base layer and add sweetness and acidity under the custard.

The step that matters

Pour the custard slowly and fill only two-thirds full. Pouring slowly while the butter and yolks are mixed helps keep the emulsion smooth rather than broken. Leaving room in the dish allows for rising and prevents overflow during baking.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, lemon):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, lemon. 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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