Why it works: Milk and tea work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 738 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Favourite Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grease a pie dish.
Slice the stale bread.
Stone the raisins.
Assemble
Lay the raisins in a ring at the bottom of the dish, with a few in the centre.
Spread the bread with the dripping.
Lay the bread slices in the dish, sprinkling sugar and the remaining raisins between them.
Make the custard
Beat the egg to a froth.
Mix the beaten egg with the milk.
Pour the mixture over the bread and raisins.
Bake
Bake for an hour.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
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.
-
Milk + teatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that sets with the egg into a custard and soaks into the bread.
- Egg
- Binds the milk and sets as it bakes, giving the pudding a custard texture.
- Raisins
- Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the savoury richness of the dripping and bread.
The step that matters
Pour the mixture over the bread and raisins.. The bread needs time to absorb the egg and milk custard before baking. Dry spots left unsoaked stay dry and do not set evenly.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, tea, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Peachfits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, tea, 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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