Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓
Lemon Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the bread
Place two thick slices of bread in a baking dish.
Pour over one and one-half cups boiling water and one-half cup butter.
Make the custard and bake
Add the beaten yolks of two eggs, three-fourths cup sugar, and juice of one and one-half lemons.
Bake about 20 minutes.
Top and brown
Frost with stiffly beaten whites of eggs and two tablespoonfuls of sugar, then brown in oven.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Soaks up the liquid and gives the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard and stiffly beaten whites form a browning topping.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that softens the bread and carries flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the meringue topping brown.
- Lemons
- Juice adds sharp acidity and bright lemon flavour to the custard.
The step that matters
Frost with stiffly beaten egg whites. Whites must be beaten stiff and spread fully over the pudding so they hold their shape and seal the surface. Under-beaten or unevenly spread whites can deflate, weep, or brown unevenly in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, bread, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, bread, egg. 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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