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Dessert

Napoleon Pudding

A chocolate bread pudding made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Napoleon Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the pudding

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Pour the hot milk over the bread and chocolate.

  3. Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

Bake and top

  1. Bake for 1 hour in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).

  2. When cold, beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla.

  4. Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
Set the custard, giving the pudding structure and body as they cook.
Bread
Soaks up the hot milk and forms the soft body of the pudding.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light topping that puffs and browns in the oven.
Milk
Moistens the bread and forms the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff peaks while cold so they hold air. Under-whipped or deflated whites will weep or sink into the pudding instead of forming a light topping.

“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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