Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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.
Prepare the pudding
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Combine bread crumbs, milk, sugar, egg yolks, lemon rind, and butter in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set but not watery.
Make the meringue and finish
Whip the egg whites until stiff.
Gradually beat in 1 cup of sugar and the lemon juice until smooth.
Spread jelly or sweetmeats over the baked pudding.
Top with the meringue and return to the oven to bake lightly.
Serve with cold 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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Form the body of the pudding and absorb the milk as it bakes.
- Milk
- Provides liquid that softens the crumbs and sets into a custard with the eggs.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set, giving the pudding structure and richness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the meringue become smooth and glossy.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the light, browned meringue topping.
The step that matters
Bake the pudding until set but not watery. Egg yolks thicken as they heat; underbaking leaves a runny base, while overbaking can make the custard curdle and weep liquid.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, sugar, egg, butter):
- Vanillabetter flavor fit
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Peachabout as good a flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, sugar, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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