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Dessert

Jelly Pudding

A baked pudding made from milk, bread crumbs, egg yolks, and sugar, topped with jelly and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Jelly 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.

Make the pudding

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

  2. In a bowl, combine milk, bread crumbs, beaten egg yolks, and sugar.

  3. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes.

Add the topping and finish

  1. Once cool, spread jelly over the pudding.

  2. Beat the egg whites with a little sugar until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the beaten egg whites on top of the jelly.

  4. Return the pudding to the oven for a few minutes to set the frosting.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs and bread crumbs into a soft custard.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the pudding its body and soft texture.
Egg yolks
Set during baking to bind the pudding and add richness.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar into a stiff meringue that browns lightly on top.
Jelly
Adds fruity sweetness and a sticky layer between the pudding and meringue.

The step that matters

Spread the jelly only after the pudding has cooled. Warm pudding softens the jelly and makes it run, while a cooled base keeps the layers distinct. Egg whites must be beaten until stiff peaks form, because under-whipped whites will weep or slump when returned to the oven.

“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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