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 ↓
Cream 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 custard
Melt the butter in the milk over low heat.
Stir in the sugar and a grating of nutmeg.
Add the beaten egg yolks and mix well.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a buttered shallow pudding dish coated with bread crumbs.
Sprinkle additional bread crumbs on top.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set in the middle.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the custard sets from.
- Egg yolks
- Enriches the custard and helps it set when baked.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the pudding and give it an airy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds to its tender texture.
- Bread crumbs
- Coat the dish and form a crisp, lightly browned top layer.
The step that matters
Fold in the egg whites gently. Stiff egg white foam traps air that gives lift. Stirring it in vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a dense pudding instead of a light one.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, egg, bread):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Parsleyfits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, egg, bread. 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.
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