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Dessert

Bread Pudding

Bread pudding made with bread crumbs, sweet milk, eggs, butter, sugar, raisins, and optional spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Towanda, Pa. Christ church. Young ladies society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Bread Pudding

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

Prepare the bread

  1. Put bread crumbs in a dish and cover with sweet milk; let soak until thoroughly soaked.

  2. Add one well beaten egg to the bread crumbs.

  3. Add a little salt.

Make the pudding

  1. Use two teacups of meal.

  2. Moisten the meal with cold water.

  3. Pour one pint of boiling water over it.

  4. Add one tablespoonful of butter.

  5. Add two teacups of sugar.

  6. Add one cup of raisins.

  7. Add three well beaten eggs before adding.

  8. Fill up with sweet milk.

  9. Season with whatever spice is preferred.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake slowly for half an hour or more.

  2. Bake until brown.

  3. Eat with hard sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

746Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Puddingnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Towanda, Pa. Christ church. Young ladies society. [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.

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.

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

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

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,111 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the pudding and help it set into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and form the soft body of the pudding.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the top brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Bake slowly for half an hour or more. Baking slowly lets the eggs set gently into a custard without curdling or drying out, while the surface still browns. Bake until the pudding is set in the center, since the record gives no other test.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, sugar. 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.

More bread pudding recipes

Apple 145Chocolate 53Brown 51Fruit 44Lemon 37Steamed 29 See all 1,021 →

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