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Dessert

The Queen of Puddings, with Strawberry Meringue

A custard pudding topped with sugared strawberries and a light meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The Queen of Puddings, with Strawberry Meringue

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 base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the whipped egg yolks, then mix in the breadcrumbs soaked in milk and the lemon flavoring.

Bake and top

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish, filling it two-thirds full, and bake until the custard is set.

  2. Remove from the oven and cover with strawberries rolled in sugar.

  3. Make the meringue by whipping the egg whites and mixing in the sugar, then spread it over the strawberries.

  4. Return to the oven for a few minutes to lightly brown the meringue, then serve cold.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whipped whites form the meringue topping.
Breadcrumbs
Soaked in milk, they absorb liquid and give the custard a soft, tender body.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the breadcrumbs and forms the custard base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the creamed base a smoother, softer texture.
Strawberries
Add fresh fruit acidity and aroma beneath the meringue layer.

The step that matters

Baking the custard until set. Underbaking leaves the custard runny and unable to hold the topping, while overbaking can make it curdle and dry. Watching for a set centre keeps it tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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