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Dessert

The Queen of Puddings

A baked bread pudding with lemon, egg yolks, currant jelly topping, and whipped egg whites, served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The Queen of Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pudding

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

  2. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, milk, ½ cup sugar, egg yolks, butter, and lemon rind.

  3. Bake until firm but not watery.

Top and finish

  1. In another bowl, beat egg whites with 4 tablespoons sugar and lemon juice until stiff.

  2. Spread currant jelly over the top of the pudding, then add the beaten egg whites.

  3. Return to the oven until the topping is firm.

  4. Serve with cream.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the body of the pudding and absorb the milk to set a soft, custardy base.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar and lemon juice to form a stiff, airy meringue topping.
Milk
Provides the liquid that softens the crumbs and forms the custard base.
Currant jelly
Adds a fruity sweetness and tartness in a layer over the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake until firm but not watery. Underbaking leaves the custard loose and wet, while overbaking can make it dry and tough. Egg proteins set with heat, so the pudding needs enough time to firm without curdling or weeping liquid.

Flavor stand-ins for the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, egg, butter, walnut, lemon):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, egg, butter, walnut, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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