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 ↓
Bread 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the yolks of the eggs and mix with milk, bread crumbs, sugar, and butter.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake and top
Bake for 25 minutes.
Spread a layer of currant jelly over the top.
Beat the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff.
Spread the beaten egg whites over the jelly.
Return to the oven to brown the top.
Serve
Serve warm with cream or hot sauce.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and set the custard, while whites form the stiff topping that browns.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that soaks the bread and forms the custard base.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the custard and give the pudding its body and structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and the meringue, and helps the topping brown.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air and hold their shape over the jelly. Underbeaten whites weep and slide, and the topping then browns unevenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, vanilla, bread, sugar, butter):
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, vanilla, bread, sugar, butter. 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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