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Dessert

Queen of Puddings

A sweet bread crumb pudding topped with jelly and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. 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. Cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and soaked bread crumbs in milk.

  3. Mix in the vanilla.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until firm.

Top and finish

  1. Allow the pudding to cool.

  2. Spread with jelly or jam.

  3. Make a meringue with the whipped egg whites and powdered sugar.

  4. Spread the meringue over the pudding.

  5. Brown the meringue slightly in the oven.

  6. In summer, substitute fresh strawberries for the jelly.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Egg yolks set the custard and whites whip into the meringue topping.
Bread crumbs
Soaked crumbs absorb the milk and give the pudding its body.
Milk
Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs into a soft custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue stay glossy and stable.
Jelly or jam
Forms a fruity, sweet layer between the custard and the meringue.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the custard base.

The step that matters

Let the custard set before topping. Egg proteins set as the custard heats, and spreading jam or meringue on a warm, unset base can make it run or go soggy. Cooling until firm keeps the layers distinct.

“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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