Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Queen of Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Combine one pint bread crumbs, one quart milk, one cup sugar, yolks of four eggs, one tablespoon butter, and one teaspoon lemon extract, and bake.
Top and brown
Spread a layer of fruit jelly over the baked pudding.
Whip the whites of the eggs to a froth with one-fourth cup sugar and the juice of one lemon, then spread the froth over the jelly.
Return to the oven to brown the top.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (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, soaking up milk to make a soft, tender base.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the egg yolks thicken into a custard.
- Eggs
- Yolks set the custard, while whipped whites form the light topping.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and stabilizes the whipped whites so the topping holds its shape.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender custard.
- Lemon
- Adds bright acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the pudding and topping.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites into the topping. The whites must be beaten to a stiff, glossy froth so the topping holds its shape. The sugar stabilizes the foam, helping it stay airy and brown evenly in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, butter, egg. 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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