Skip to main content
Dessert

Rusk Pudding

A pudding made from stale bread, eggs, milk, sugar, lemon, jam, and cornflour, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Rusk Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the stale bread into small squares.

  2. Bake the squares in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

Make the custard

  1. In a pie dish, beat the eggs with the sugar and grated lemon rind.

  2. Pour in 1 pint of milk and mix well.

  3. Add the baked bread squares.

  4. Place the mixture in a 300°F (150°C) oven until firm.

Top and finish

  1. Spread a layer of jam on top.

  2. In a saucepan, heat ½ pint of milk until nearly boiling.

  3. Stir in the cornflour mixed with a little lemon peel and sugar.

  4. Pour the mixture over the pudding.

  5. Return the pudding to the oven for a few minutes.

  6. Let it cool.

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. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Set the custard and give the pudding its structure when heated.
Bread
Soaks up the custard and gives the pudding its soft, bready body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the pudding moist.
Cornflour
Thickens the hot milk mixture so it becomes a smooth, set sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the tartness of the lemon and jam.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour to the layer spread on top.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cornflour. Cornflour is a starch that thickens only when heated in liquid. If it is added lumpy or not fully mixed, it forms clumps and the sauce will not thicken evenly. Mix it smoothly first, then stir while the milk heats.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes