Skip to main content
Dessert

To Make Citron Puddings in Cups, to Turn Out

A baked dessert made with butter, milk, flour, bread crumbs, sugar, nutmeg, citron, and eggs, served in cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

To Make Citron Puddings in Cups, to Turn Out

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter in the milk over low heat.

  2. Whisk in the flour and bread crumbs until thickened.

  3. Add sugar and nutmeg to taste.

  4. Mix in the finely chopped citron and eggs until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter your cups and fill them with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.

  3. Once done, turn them out onto a dish and sprinkle sugar on top.

  4. Serve with wine sauce.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture and gives the pudding body.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and absorb liquid, giving the pudding a softer structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and flavour.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that sets into a custard-like pudding.
Citron
Adds candied fruit flavour and aroma throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Whisking in the flour and bread crumbs. Adding them while the milk is warm and whisking constantly prevents lumps and lets the starch thicken the liquid evenly before baking.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

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

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes