Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 19,187 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
The 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Rub the butter into 1 cup of sugar.
Beat the egg yolks until very light, then stir them into the butter and sugar mixture.
Soak the bread crumbs in the rice milk, then add them to the mixture along with the seasoning.
Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish, filling it two-thirds full, and bake until the custard is set.
Top and bake
Remove from the oven and spread the top with jelly or jam.
Make a meringue with the whipped egg whites and ½ cup of sugar, then spread it over the jam.
Return to the oven and bake until the meringue begins to color.
Serve
Serve cold with cream.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,032 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Yolks thicken the custard and whites whip into the meringue for structure.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the rice milk and give the custard body.
- Rice milk
- Provides the liquid that sets into the custard.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue stay stable and brown.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the custard.
The step that matters
Bake the custard until set. Underbaked custard stays loose and runny, while overbaking makes egg proteins tighten and weep, so watch for a set centre rather than a fixed time.
“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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