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Dessert

Cabinet Pudding

A steamed pudding made with sponge cake, raisins, citron, custard, and a brandy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cabinet Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Grease a pudding mold with butter.

  2. Arrange raisins and citron around the sides of the mold.

  3. Place broken pieces of sponge cake close to the fruit, filling the mold halfway.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla to make a custard.

  2. Pour the custard over the cake in the mold.

  3. Cover the mold with buttered paper.

  4. Steam the pudding slowly until set.

Make the sauce and bake

  1. For the sauce, mix melted butter, sugar, egg yolks, and brandy.

  2. Bake the pudding in a water bath for one 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla 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

Eggs
Set the custard into a tender, sliceable structure as they cook.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the pudding moist.
Sponge cake
Soaks up the custard and gives the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel in the pudding and sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to both the custard and the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the pudding slowly in a water bath. Eggs set gently at moderate heat. High or uneven heat makes the custard curdle, leaving it grainy and watery instead of smooth and creamy.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

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