Name: Baked Bread-and-fruit Pudding
Ingredients: 14 cups dry bread crumbs; 2 quarts sweet milk; 3 tablespoons melted butter; Nutmeg, to taste; 6 to 8 eggs, whites beaten to a stiff froth; 1 pound raisins, picked, seeded, chopped, and dredged with flour

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Bread-and-fruit Pudding

Ingredients

14 cups dry bread crumbs
2 quarts sweet milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
Nutmeg, to taste
6 to 8 eggs, whites beaten to a stiff froth
1 pound raisins, picked, seeded, chopped, and dredged with flour

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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs, sweet milk, melted butter, and nutmeg.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Add the dredged raisins last and mix until evenly distributed.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for longer than a standard baked bread pudding, until set and golden.

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Whipped whites trap air and help the pudding set light and custard-like.
Dry bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and form the body of the pudding.
Sweet milk: Hydrates the crumbs and sets with the eggs into a soft custard.
Raisins: Add chewy pockets of sweetness; flouring helps keep them from sinking.
Melted butter: Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and browning.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only while stiff; overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates them, and the pudding loses the lift and lightness that the whipped foam provides as it sets.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, butter, egg, raisin, flour):

Cinnamonfits about as well
Nutmegthe original
Capersfits less well
Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, butter, egg, raisin, flour. 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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Baked Bread-and-fruit Pudding