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Dessert

Queen Pudding

A baked bread crumb pudding topped with fruit jelly or marmalade and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Queen 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 the custard

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

  2. In a saucepan, heat the milk and sugar until dissolved.

  3. Add the bread crumbs and stir until combined.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix them into the bread mixture.

  5. Pour the mixture into a baking pan, about 1 inch deep.

  6. Bake until barely set.

Top and bake

  1. Spread the fruit jelly or marmalade over the top.

  2. Cover with soft meringue and sprinkle sifted sugar on top.

  3. Bake until lightly colored.

  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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the custard its body and soft texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs into a tender custard.
Eggs
Set the custard structure as they cook, holding the pudding together.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the bread crumbs and milk blend smoothly.
Fruit jelly or marmalade
Adds a sweet, tart fruit layer that contrasts with the custard.

The step that matters

Bake until barely set. Egg custard keeps cooking after leaving the oven. Pulling it when just set, with a slight wobble, prevents it from curdling, weeping, or turning rubbery.

“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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