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Dessert

The Bakewell Pudding

A custard-like pudding with candied peel, lined in puff pastry, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The Bakewell Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs and the whites of 2 eggs with 4 cups of powdered sugar and ½ cup of clarified butter until well mixed.

  2. Place the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  3. For added flavor, mix in 1 cup of milk (or milk and cream) and optional ratafia or brandy just before the mixture reaches boiling.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a dish with puff pastry and add a layer of candied peel about an inch thick.

  2. You can also add preserved fruits and top with apricot or raspberry jam for decoration.

  3. Pour the egg mixture over the candied peel.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) 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. Pineapple + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Brandy + apricottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together826 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Brandy + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks and whites
Coagulate on baking to set the custard into a sliceable, tender body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps give it a smooth, fine texture.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing a silky mouthfeel to the custard.
Milk
Adds moisture and dilutes the custard, keeping it softer when set.
Candied peel
Adds concentrated sweetness and aromatic citrus flavor in the base layer.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard over low heat. Egg proteins set at moderate temperatures, so stirring constantly over low heat prevents curdling or scrambling. Adding milk just before boiling keeps the custard from overheating and turning grainy.

Swap the apricot

The recipe marks apricot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, brandy, pineapple):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Apricotthe original
  4. Peachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, brandy, pineapple. 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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