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Dessert

Peabody English Pudding

A rich fruit pudding made with flour, butter, sugar, raisins, currants, citron, spices, and brandy, boiled for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Peabody English Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs lightly with the sugar.

  2. Cream the flour and butter together, then stir into the egg and sugar mixture.

  3. Coat the citron, raisins, and currants with flour.

  4. Mix the spices and lemon sugar into the brandy, then add to the mixture.

  5. Slowly stir in the fruit, one handful at a time, starting with the raisins, then currants, and finally citron.

Boil and serve

  1. Put the mixture into a pudding mold and boil for 6 hours, adding hot water as needed.

  2. To serve, stick blanched almonds into the pudding, pour ½ cup of French brandy over it, and set it on fire at the table.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 richness as the pudding sets.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dense batter and fruit together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the eggs and butter combine into a smooth batter.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
French brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and is later set alight for serving.

The step that matters

Boil for 6 hours with added hot water. The pudding cooks gently in steam, so the mold must not boil dry. Adding hot water as needed keeps the steam constant and the pudding moist and evenly cooked.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, raisin, brandy, clove, 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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