Name: Sour Milk Bread Pudding
Ingredients: 1 cup sour milk; 2 cups bread crumbs; 1 cup flour; 1 cup chopped raisins; 1 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon soda; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 2 eggs; 68 desserts

Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Sour Milk Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Add 1 cup sour milk.
Add 2 cups bread crumbs.
Add 1 cup flour.
Add 1 cup butter.
Add 1 cup chopped raisins.
Add 1 cup sugar.
Add 2 eggs.
Add 1 teaspoon soda.
Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Steam

Steam for 2 hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

799Calories

28 gProtein

15 gFat

138 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. 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. 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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the soda to lift the batter and adds a slight tang.
Soda: Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that leavens the pudding.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Flour: Adds body and structure to the batter.
Bread crumbs: Soak up the liquid and give the pudding its soft, moist crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and contributes to a tender 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.