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Dessert

Queen Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, butter, bread crumbs, eggs, sugar, vanilla, jam, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 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 base

  1. Boil the milk with the butter.

  2. Mix 1 tablespoon of sugar with the bread crumbs.

  3. Pour the hot milk over the mixture.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks and vanilla extract.

  5. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish.

Bake and top

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 80 minutes, or until set.

  2. Spread the jam on top.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  4. Add the remaining sugar to the beaten egg whites.

  5. Pile the whipped egg whites on top of the pudding.

  6. Return the pudding to the oven until set.

  7. Serve hot or 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Milk
Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs into a soft, custard-like body.
Eggs
Egg yolks set the custard, while whipped whites give the topping its light, airy structure.
White bread crumbs
Absorb the hot milk and give the pudding its soft, tender body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the custard a smoother, softer texture.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour in a layer beneath the meringue.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Under-beaten whites collapse and weep, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy. Stiff, glossy peaks hold their shape and bake into a light topping.

“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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