Name: Bread Pudding
Ingredients: stale bread, crusts removed; butter; preserved fruit (acid fruits are best); brown sugar; 4 eggs; 1 pint milk; nutmeg

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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.

Prepare

Slice the stale bread and butter it moderately thick.
Butter a deep dish and cover the bottom with slices of bread.

Assemble and bake

Add a layer of preserved fruit over the bread, then sprinkle with brown sugar.
In a bowl, whisk together 4 eggs and 1 pint of milk to make a custard.
Pour the custard over the pudding and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.
Grate nutmeg over the pudding when done.

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.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,997 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread: Forms the structure that soaks up the custard and holds the pudding together.
Eggs: Set the custard as they cook, binding the pudding into a soft, sliceable texture.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the custard, keeping the pudding moist as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat that enriches flavour and helps the bread brown at the edges.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a caramel-like flavour that deepens as it bakes.
Preserved fruit: Adds moisture and acidity that brighten the sweet custard.

The step that matters

Pour the custard over the pudding and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.. Egg custard sets through gentle heat; if the oven runs too hot the eggs can curdle and turn grainy, while too little baking leaves the centre runny. The bread must be fully soaked before baking so the custard sets evenly.