Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,232 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Queen of Puddings
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 custard
Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.
Beat the egg yolks and 4 egg whites with 1 cup of sugar until well combined.
Flavor the mixture with lemon and add the butter.
Bake and top
Bake the mixture in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set.
Beat the remaining 4 egg whites with 1 cup of sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the baked pudding and return to the oven until the meringue is light brown.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and form the soft body of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Set the custard and enrich it with richness and a smooth texture.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that forms the light, stable meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and meringue and helps the meringue hold its shape.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the bread and sets into the custard.
The step that matters
Spread the meringue over the baked pudding and return to the oven until the meringue is light brown.. Meringue can weep or collapse if under-whipped or overbaked, and it browns quickly at the end, so watch it closely for a light golden colour.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, sugar, butter):
- Vanillabetter flavor fit
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Peachabout as good a flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, sugar, butter. 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.
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