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Dessert

Napoleon Puddings

A bread pudding made with milk, bread, chocolate, eggs, and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk.

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

  3. Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla, mixing well, then adjust sweetness if desired.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

Top with meringue

  1. Once cooled, beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla.

  3. Spread the meringue 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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Milk
Provides the liquid that softens the bread and forms the custard base with the eggs.
Bread
Soaks up the warm milk and gives the pudding its body and soft texture.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the custard into a tender, sliceable pudding.
Chocolate
Adds deep flavor and a rich, mildly bitter note to the sweet custard.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they form the light, airy meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the whipped egg white meringue.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks, which needs a clean, grease-free bowl and whites that are not mixed with yolk. Under-beaten whites will weep and slump on the pudding.

“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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