Puddings

Les poudings classiques teach classification before cooking. The one true thing to know is that pudding names describe different structures, not interchangeable flavours. A cream pudding, a bread pudding, and a souffléd pudding may all arrive among the hot sweets, but they cannot share one batter or one cooking method. C'est la même grammaire only after you identify which sentence you are making.

The original entry assumed its eight generic formulas would follow close at hand, with a brigade able to prepare the chosen pudding and its sauce as separate work. A home kitchen needs an honest equivalent: select one family, open its complete formula, scale every proportion together for four diners, and prepare one appropriate accompaniment. The eight-part enumeration is brigade scaffolding. The ratios, sequence, mould, and cooking method are the dish, and none can be manufactured from a classification alone.

This page is therefore the map, not an invented master batter. One cook, one stove, one evening begins with a choice. Before touching a pan, decide which of the eight families you intend to cook and place its dedicated formula in front of you.