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Dessert

Coburg Puddings

A sweet pudding made with milk, flour, sugar, butter, currants, eggs, brandy, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Coburg Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition.

  3. Mix in the rest of the ingredients.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered dairy moulds or small cups.

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Serve with wine sauce.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and lift as the pudding sets.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness and helps the creamed base hold air.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps create a light, creamed texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the pudding rises and turns light.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter.

The step that matters

Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Adding eggs slowly lets each one blend fully into the creamed butter and sugar. If they are added too fast, the batter can curdle and lose the air needed for a light texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sugar, butter, egg, brandy, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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