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Dessert

Queen of Puddings

A sweet bread pudding made with bread crumbs, eggs, sugar, raisins, lemon, and milk.

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 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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, sugar, raisins, and milk. Zest and juice the lemon, then add to the mixture.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the whites of 2 eggs until stiff, then fold in ½ cup sugar. Spread the egg mixture over the top of the pudding mixture.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Lemon + raisintop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides 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 eggs to form the soft body of the pudding.
Eggs
Set when heated, giving the pudding structure and a light topping.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the eggs and crumbs bind into a custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the beaten egg whites hold their shape.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Lemon
Zest and juice add bright acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air and sugar, forming a light topping that bakes golden. Under-beaten whites can weep or sink into the pudding, while overbaking dries the custard beneath.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, sugar, raisin, milk. 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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