Pudding de Fromage au Pain

Pudding de Fromage au Pain (savory bread-and-cheese pudding) teaches a hard, useful truth: stale bread is not a compromise here, it is the structure. Its dry crumb drinks the yolk-rich broth while keeping distinct layers; fresh bread collapses into paste before the dish can set. Butter, not margarine, and a firm grated cheese give the soft center its savory backbone.

The classical formula assumed a saucier on staff, a stock never off the fire, and a salamander waiting to glaze the top. At home, a good light chicken broth, an ordinary oven, and a closely watched broiler do the same work. The formula is already built for a pint dish, so this version retains its four yolks to one-quarter imperial pint of broth, translated to 140 ml, and uses a 600 ml gratin dish. Holding stock and staffing the glaze were brigade scaffolding; thin stale bread, butter between the slices, the three-quarter fill, and the final glaze are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished pudding should be tender but distinctly layered beneath a generous crust of blistered Comté, with broth and yolks bound around the bread rather than turning it to porridge. The one step that decides everything comes first: make certain the bread is dry and firm before it meets the liaison.