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Dessert

Marmalade Pudding

A custard baked with bread, marmalade, eggs, milk, sugar, salt, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk 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 ↓

Marmalade Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut slices of roll and butter them lightly on both sides.

  2. Spread the top thickly with marmalade.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs separately.

  2. Add the whipped egg whites.

  3. Sprinkle in the sugar.

  4. Add the milk.

  5. Pour the custard into a tart dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Lay the slices of bread and marmalade on top.

  2. Let it stand for an hour.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until set.

  4. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

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. Bread + milktop 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. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  4. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as their proteins heat and firm, giving the pudding its structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the eggs set into a soft, creamy custard.
Bread
Soaks up the custard and holds its shape, giving the pudding body.
Marmalade
Adds sweetness, acidity and orange flavour that cut through the rich custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tang of the marmalade.

The step that matters

Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until set. Egg proteins firm as they heat. Overbaking or too much heat makes the custard curdle, turn rubbery and weep liquid, while underbaking leaves it runny in the middle.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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