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Dessert

Superior Bread Puddings

A custard bread pudding with jam topping and meringue, baked until set.

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

Superior Bread Puddings

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of sugar.

  3. Beat the egg yolks until light and stir them into the creamed mixture.

  4. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk, then add to the mixture along with the flavoring.

  5. Pour into a buttered pudding dish, filling it two-thirds full.

  6. Bake until the custard is set.

Top and finish

  1. Spread jam or fruit conserve on top.

  2. Make a meringue with the whipped egg whites and remaining ½ cup of sugar, then cover the pudding with it.

  3. Bake until the meringue begins to color.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with cream or warm sauce.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Sugar and vanilla 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
Egg proteins set on heating to form the custard, and whipped whites give the meringue its lift.
Milk
Provides the liquid that softens the bread and forms the custard's moist, tender body.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and eggs, giving the pudding its body and a soft, absorbent texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the meringue hold its shape and brown lightly.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded flavor to the custard.

The step that matters

Bake until the custard is set. Egg proteins coagulate as they heat, so the custard firms up. Underbaking leaves it runny, while overbaking makes the eggs tighten and weep or curdle, leaving a grainy texture.

“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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