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Dessert

Boston Pudding

A bread pudding made with whole wheat bread, milk, molasses, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Boston Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Remove the crust from the bread and generously butter the slices.

  2. Arrange the slices in a shallow buttered pudding dish.

Bake

  1. Pour ¾ of the milk mixed with molasses over the bread.

  2. Bake for 3 hours in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C), stirring occasionally.

  3. Add the remaining milk after the first hour of cooking.

Serve

  1. Serve with thin cream.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat bread
Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up milk and molasses as it bakes.
Milk
Provides the liquid that soaks into the bread and sets into a custard-like texture.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a deep, rich flavor to the milk and bread.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the bread and helps it brown slightly at the edges.

The step that matters

Adding the remaining milk after the first hour. Adding the milk in two portions lets the bread absorb liquid gradually, so it softens without becoming waterlogged or dry during the long, slow bake.

“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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