Skip to main content
Dessert

Queen of Puddings

A baked custard pudding made with milk, butter, breadcrumbs, eggs, vanilla, jam, and topped with whipped egg whites and candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Queen of 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 base

  1. Combine milk and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Pour the boiling mixture over the breadcrumbs and sugar.

  3. Add a few drops of vanilla and the egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. Pour a little of this mixture into a buttered pie dish.

Add jam and bake

  1. Add a layer of jam on top of the mixture in the pie dish.

  2. Pour the remaining mixture over the jam.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 35 minutes, until firm.

Make the meringue and finish

  1. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.

  2. Stir in 2 tablespoons of castor sugar.

  3. Spread the whipped egg whites on top of the pudding.

  4. Sprinkle with castor sugar.

  5. Decorate with cherries and angelica.

  6. Place in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 8 minutes to set and lightly brown the egg whites.

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. Vanilla + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 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

Breadcrumbs
Absorb the hot milk to form the soft, body-giving base of the custard.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the custard as it bakes, while whites whip into the meringue topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid that sets with the egg yolks into a tender custard.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the custard a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the whipped egg whites stay stable and glossy.
Jam
Adds a sweet, fruity layer between the custard and the meringue.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold firm peaks, because trapped air is what makes the meringue light. Any trace of yolk or fat in the bowl will stop them whipping properly.

Flavor stand-ins for the angelica

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

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  3. Cloveabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, vanilla. 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes