Skip to main content
Dessert

Pudding

A fried and baked pudding made with flour, milk, cinnamon, eggs, butter, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine flour, milk, and vanilla.

  2. Add the cinnamon stick to the milk and bring to a boil.

  3. Mix sugar, corn starch, and flour in a bowl with cold milk until smooth.

  4. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 2 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat, then stir in beaten egg yolks.

  6. Return to heat briefly to set.

  7. Remove the cinnamon stick.

  8. Stir in butter and vanilla.

Shape and coat

  1. Pour the mixture onto a buttered tin, about ⅔ inch thick.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Cut into parallelograms, about 2 inches long and 2 inches wide.

  4. Roll each piece in cracker crumbs, then in beaten egg, then again in cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot lard until light brown.

  2. Place in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 4-5 minutes.

  3. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set when gently reheated.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so it sets firm enough to cut and coat.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the set custard.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns when fried.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the crumbs stick to each piece.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard before it is set. Cornstarch must reach a boil to thicken fully, and egg yolks must be heated gently after being stirred in, so the custard sets firm enough to cut without scrambling or staying runny.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes