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Dessert

Queen of Puddings

A custard-like pudding topped with meringue and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Queen of Puddings

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. Combine milk, bread crumbs, butter, and beaten egg yolks in a large bowl; sweeten and flavor as desired, then mix well.

Make the meringue

  1. Beat egg whites until frothy, then gradually add powdered sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Assemble and bake

  1. Spread a layer of jelly or preserve over the pudding mixture, then top with the meringue.

  2. Place in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) and bake until golden brown.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and set into a soft, custardy body for the pudding.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set in the oven.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the light, browned meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whites to stabilise the meringue and sweeten it.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the crumbs absorb and the eggs set into custard.
Jelly or preserve
Adds a fruity sweetness and acidity that contrasts with the rich custard.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites must be whipped until stiff and then baked gently so the meringue stays airy and browns without weeping or collapsing. Underbeaten whites stay runny and deflate in the oven.

“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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