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Dessert

Queen of Puddings

A layered steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, jam, sponge cake, almond macaroons, and custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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 the custard base

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk.

  2. Rub the melted butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks, soaked bread crumbs, lemon juice, and rind; beat to a smooth paste.

Layer and steam

  1. Butter a mold well and add a layer of dry bread crumbs at the bottom.

  2. Place a layer of macaroons evenly on top and wet with sherry.

  3. Cover with a layer of the mixture, then add slices of sponge cake spread thickly with jelly.

  4. Repeat layers of macaroons, wetting with sherry, followed by more custard, sponge cake, and jam until the mold is full.

  5. Finish with a layer of the mixture on top.

  6. Cover closely and steam in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

Brown and serve

  1. Remove the cover to brown the top.

  2. Carefully turn out onto a dish and pour over warmed currant jelly mixed with melted butter and sherry.

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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the custard and help it set into a smooth, sliceable texture.
Bread crumbs
Soaked crumbs thicken the custard and give it body and moisture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps it brown on top.
Sherry wine
Moistens the macaroon and cake layers and adds aroma.
Almond macaroons
Soak up sherry and add almond flavour and a chewy, moist layer.
Jelly or jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour between the cake layers.

The step that matters

Steaming the covered mold. Gentle, covered steam heat lets the custard set evenly without curdling or drying. Removing the cover only at the end lets the top brown safely.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Peasfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Cocoafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, lemon, egg, sherry, wine, 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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