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Dessert

Queen Pudding

A baked pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, sugar, butter, egg, and jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Queen Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Boil the milk and pour it over the breadcrumbs, sugar, and butter.

  2. When slightly cooled, add the beaten egg yolk.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a greased pie dish.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set but not brown.

Top and finish

  1. Spread a layer of jam over the top.

  2. Beat the egg white to a stiff froth and mix in 2 teaspoons of sugar.

  3. Pile the egg white mixture on top of the pudding.

  4. Bake at 300°F (150°C) until set or slightly colored.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread or cake crumbs
Form the body of the pudding and soak up the hot milk to set a soft texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that sets with the egg into a tender custard.
Egg
The yolk thickens the custard and the whipped white forms a light, set meringue topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and the meringue, and helps the meringue stay glossy.
Jam
Adds a fruity sweetness and an acidic layer between the custard and the meringue.

The step that matters

Bake the meringue until just set or lightly colored. Egg white meringue turns tough, weepy, or browned quickly at high heat. Baking at a lower temperature sets the foam gently and keeps the custard below it from overcooking.

“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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