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Dessert

Zwieback Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with soaked zwieback, raisins, eggs, milk, sugar, and nutmeg or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Zwieback Pudding

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.

Prepare

  1. Soak some zwieback in the bottom of a pudding mold for several hours before cooking.

  2. Beat the eggs together in a bowl until combined.

Make the batter

  1. Add the eggs to the milk, sugar, and nutmeg or vanilla, and mix well.

Assemble and cook

  1. Pour a layer of the batter over the zwieback, then add another layer of zwieback, repeating until all ingredients are used, finishing with zwieback on top.

  2. Boil the pudding for 1 to 2 hours.

  3. Bake the pudding in a china dish at 350°F (175°C) for 1 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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 so the pudding holds together when cooked.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the pudding moist.
Zwieback
Soaks up the custard and gives the pudding its body and structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the custard.
Seedless raisins
Add sweetness and chewy pockets throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Cooking the egg custard gently. Egg proteins set as they heat. Too much heat or too long cooking makes the custard curdle, weep or turn rubbery, so the pudding should be cooked at a moderate, steady temperature.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, egg, milk, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, egg, milk, sugar. 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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