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Dessert

Spiced Cheese Pudding

A baked cheese and bread pudding flavored with spices and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,189 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Spiced Cheese Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grease a baking dish and place the cubed bread in the dish.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately.

  2. Blend the yolks with milk, salt, sugar, and cottage cheese mixed with baking soda.

  3. Add the spices and chopped raisins.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Pour the mixture over the bread cubes.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake until set, like a custard.

  2. Optionally, beat the egg white with 1 tablespoon of sugar and spread it over the pudding before removing it from the oven.

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. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cottage cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and add structure, with whipped whites lightening the mixture.
Bread
Soaks up the custard and gives the pudding its body.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that gives the custard its moisture and smooth texture.
Cottage cheese
Adds creamy body and protein that helps the custard firm as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy pockets throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake until set, like a custard. Egg proteins set with heat, but they keep firming as the pudding cools. Overbaking squeezes out liquid and makes the texture grainy or watery, so remove it while the centre still has a slight wobble.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, raisin, allspice, milk, cottage cheese. 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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