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Dessert

Brioche Pudding a LA Duchesse

A custard-based brioche pudding flavored with sugar and vanilla, baked until golden and served with red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Brioche Pudding a LA Duchesse

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.

Make the custard

  1. Prepare a raw custard by heating 1½ pints of milk with 2 large tablespoons of sugar until warm.

  2. In a bowl, beat together 3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks with a pinch of coarse sea salt.

  3. Slowly add the warm milk mixture to the eggs, whisking continuously to combine.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a baking dish with butter and pour the custard into it.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set and lightly golden.

  3. Sprinkle with vanilla sugar before serving.

  4. Serve with red currant jelly sauce on the side.

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. Milk + buttertop 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 + red curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  5. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 as they cook, giving the pudding its firm, sliceable structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the eggs set into a tender custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the warm milk to the eggs. Pouring hot milk in too fast or while not whisking can scramble the eggs. Adding it slowly while whisking tempers the eggs so the custard sets smoothly.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

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