Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓
Cream Pudding
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a baking dish and coat the bottom with bread crumbs to the thickness of a pie crust.
Make the pudding
In a bowl, stir together the cream, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract.
Whip the egg whites until light and fluffy, then gently fold them into the cream mixture.
Pour the pudding mixture into the prepared dish and sprinkle more bread crumbs on top.
Bake
Place the dish in a shallow pan filled with water and bake until set, similar to a custard.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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
- Cream
- Provides richness and fat, giving the pudding a soft, smooth texture.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken and set the custard as they cook, giving structure to the pudding.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to trap air, lightening the mixture and helping it rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to the pudding's tender texture.
The step that matters
Bake in a water bath. Baking the dish in a shallow pan of water moderates the oven heat around the custard. This gentle, even heat helps the eggs set smoothly without curdling or cracking the surface.
“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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